The Gagarin Cup is right around the corner in the KHL as the Conference finals are nearing an end.
SKA Saint Petersburg and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl played Game 3 of their series on Monday night and the two teams needed an extra frame to settle things.
Just over 5 minutes into the first overtime period, SKA forward Alexander Barabanov picked up the puck in his own zone and decided to do the rest all by himself.
After it looked like he was going to get stood up at his own blue line by a vicious double team, the 22-year-old managed to squeeze by both of his opponents and found himself with plenty of room to make a move. As he got in over Lokomotiv’s blue line he outmuscled two more players and showed perfect patience to find the back of the net to give his team the win and a 3-0 series lead.
What makes this goal even more impressive and pretty random if you’re a diehard fan of SKA, is the fact that this was Barabanov’s first goal in 37 games dating all the way back to November 13, 2016, which coincidentally enough was against Lokomotiv.
(H/T YouTube/KHL)
