St. Petersburg’s SKA coach Roman Rotenberg analyzed how injuries to the club’s top defensemen shaped the Gagarin Cup quarterfinals against Avtomobilist from Yekaterinburg. He attributed part of the series outcome to the disruption caused by those absences. Match TV reports that Rotenberg stressed the impact of missing veterans on the team’s performance during the decisive rounds.
Rotenberg noted that serious injuries among many leading SKA defensemen in the opening phase affected the overall result of the confrontations. He emphasized that the players who did suit up for the Avtomobilist series left everything on the ice and gave their best effort to secure victory, underscoring resilience and team spirit despite the setback. As he put it, the squad fought hard but was hampered by the early injuries to crucial blue liners.
The fifth game of the series ended with Avtomobilist edging SKA 5–4. Among the victors, Alexey Byvaltsev, Nick Ebert, Andrey Obidin, and a double by Alexey Makeev delivered the decisive strikes for the Yekaterinburg club. For SKA, Mikhail Vorobyov, Marat Khairullin, and Arseniy Gritsyuk managed two goals apiece, keeping the scoreline tight and dramatic through the late stages of regulation. This clash highlighted how individual performances can tilt a tightly contested playoff tilt, even when injuries to key defenders limit a team’s defensive rigidity.
With a four-win sequence decided, the series result stood 4–1 in favor of Avtomobilist. The clinching takeaway underscored the advantage gained by the visitors, who capitalized on opportunities and maintained pressure while SKA battled through adversity in defense. The outcome set the stage for a new round of the playoffs as teams reassessed their rosters and strategies for potential rematches.
In the semifinals, Avtomobilist advanced to face the winner of the Spartak series, Metallurg Magnitogorsk. After three games in that pairing, Metallurg led 2–1, signaling a compelling continuation of the post-season saga. The path to the final four in the Gagarin Cup remained open, with both teams needing decisive performances to counter the wear of injuries and the mounting intensity of playoff hockey.
Earlier, Spartak had been involved in a previous quarterfinal clash against Metallurg Magnitogorsk, creating a momentum shift as the playoff field tightened. These early matchups set the tone for what would become a defining stretch of the season for several clubs, including SKA, as teams navigated depth, conditioning, and the pressure of do-or-die games.