Kovalchuk's SKA St. Petersburg Topples Ovechkin's Dynamo Moscow Alex Ovechkin scored a goal, but Ilya Kovalchuk emerged the winner Sunday in the superstars' first clash since the N.H.L. lockout began one week ago. Kovalchuk had an assist as SKA St. Petersburg beat Ovechkin's Dynamo Moscow, 3-1, in a K.H.L. match at the Luzhniki Arena in Moscow. It was the lockout debut in Russia for Kovalchuk, the Devils' $100 million forward. Kovalchuk's first-period assist on a goal by Patrick Thoresen helped SKA to a 1-0 lead, but Ovechkin tied the score later in the period with his first lockout goal in the K.H.L. It was one of 11 shots on goal Ovechkin took in the game. Ovechkin, captain of the Washington Capitals and a two-time N.H.L. most valuable player, now has a goal, assist and 18 shots on net in two games for Dynamo. Kovalchuk, whose 18 minutes 33 seconds of ice time topped the SKA forwards, said he felt comfortable in his first domestic league game in Russia since the 2004-5 N.H.L. lockout. "It was easy to get used to because I had four days of training with the team," Kovalchuk told the Russian newspaper Izvestia. And skating on the the big ice surface is not a problem for me because almost every year I take part in the World Championship tournament. Kovalchuk played down the showdown with Ovechkin. "Today it was a Dynamo-SKA match, not Ovechkin-Kovalchuk," he said. Dynamo are the champions, and they swept SKA last year in the playoffs. So for us, that was the extra motivation. We didn't talk about Ovechkin-Kovalchuk. The match was played before 8,097 fans at the 8,700-seat Luzhniki.