For a second time in as many games, Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov played on the SKA St. Petersburgh third line alongside former NHL star Evgeny Kuznetsov. This time, the Habs’ prospect team was victorious by a score of 3-1, but it did take it an empty-netter to seal the deal.
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Demidov spent 13:36 minutes on the ice, had one shot on goal and was kept off the scoresheet. However, he did hit the post on a wicked shot on a draw won by Kuznetsov.
The youngster took a tripping penalty in the third period, but lived to fight another shift and wasn’t benched by Roman Rotenberg even though it was a tight 2-1 game. An encouraging sign that the coach will allow him some growing pains out there.
Much like Juraj Slafkovsky in his NHL rookie season, he got rocked by a big hit while skating with his head down at the blueline. This is not uncommon for young players and it doesn’t mean he’ll have a short career.
SKA’s next game will take place on Monday when they take on Yaroslavl Lokomotiv at 7:30 PM local time or 12:30 PM ET.
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