Avangard - SKA. Match day

SKA will play one away match on its own against Avangard, from the Siberian city of Omsk. The following players, who have been called up to the Russian national team, will not be able to take part in this game: goaltender Igor Shestyorkin, defenceman Dinar Khafizullin, and forward Anton Burdasov. Avangard's Vladimir Sobotka, Erik Gustafsson, Ivan Fishchenko and Alexander Popov also cannot play.

After failing to make the play-offs last term Avangard have been more like their old selves this year, and are already sure to be in the post-season as they lie in fourth place of the Eastern Conference on 94 points. They have been going through a mini crisis of late though, dropping four home defeats in a row. Forward Denis Parshin is their top scorer with a solid 50 points to his name (24+26), while Czech star Vladimir Sobotka is 12 behind on 38 (20+28). Young goaltender Denis Kostin, who has been standing in for the injured Konstantin Barulin, holds a 91.9% saves percentage while conceding an average of 2.24 goals a game.

Our team finally got back to winning ways against Medvescak on Sunday, thrashing the Croatians 5:2 in Saint Petersburg. That victory has helped keep the gap between SKA and Jokerit at four points, although the Finns do still have a game in hand. Artemiy Panarin continues to be the form man, as he grabbed a superb three points in the match with Medvescak.

These two teams have already met this campaign, with Artemiy netting the overtime winner in a 3:2 SKA home triumph.

The Avangard - SKA match will begin at 16.00 Moscow time inside the Omsk Arena. 100 TV, KHL TV, KHL TV HD and Rossiya 2 will all broadcast the game live, while you can keep up to date with events either by following our matchcentre, or our twitter account.