MOSCOW, January 25 (R-Sport) – Spartak Moscow suffered a 5-1 pounding by SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL on Saturday, setting a new league record of 15 straight defeats.
Spartak has not won since its main sponsor Investbank collapsed last month, plunging the team into a financial crisis and raising doubts over whether it could withdraw from the KHL, something the club denies it plans to do.
SKA, second in the Western Conference, led by one goal at the end of the second period, but ran riot in the third, with two goals from Igor Makarov and one from Roman Cervenka, who is soon to join the Czech Olympic team.
Earlier, Ilya Kovalchuk had given SKA the lead in the first period, the ex-New Jersey Devils wing scoring his first non-empty-net goal of 2014.
Spartak stays 13th in the Western Conference, above only Dynamo Minsk, and can no longer qualify for the playoffs.
Earlier in the day, Sibir Novosibirsk beat Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2-1, Traktor Chelyabinsk needed a shootout to beat Metallurg Novokuznetsk 3-2, Admiral Vladivostok beat visiting team Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3-2, and Amur Khabarovsk defeated Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 5-4 in a shootout.
