The Gagarin Cup final. Game One

Today on the 11th of April, the Gagarin Cup final between SKA and Ak Bars Kazan will begin in the Tatarstan capital. As Ak Bars do have the first seed, both of the first two games will be played away for our team.

Ak Bars have been virtually flawless during these playoffs so far, and from three series they have dropped only thee games. HC Avtomobilist, HC Avangard Omsk and Sibir Novosibirsk have all been disposed of 4:1, and they are a team full of confidence. Goaltender Anders Nilsson is their current star figure, as he already has an amazing six shutouts to his name with a saves percentage of 95.3%. Swedish teammate Oscar Moller has been leading the forward line with nine points (8+1), and their top scoring defencemen are Ilya Nikulin and Yakov Rylov both on six (1+5 and 0+6 respectively).

Our players have been working miracles lately, having come back from 0:3 down to defeat HC CSKA Moscow 4:3 in a simply astounding series. Patrick Thoresen became the hero with winning goals in both games six and seven, and Mikko Koskinen has been solid in net with a 93.3% saves percentage. SKA's second line has been on fire as well, with Artemiy Panarin, Vadim Shipachyov and Yevgeni Dadonov having a combined 51 points between them.

420 SKA fans will support the team in Kazan today, with a special chartered flight landing there earlier on.

The Ak Bars - SKA match will begin at 17.00 local time inside the Tatneft Arena, Kazan. 100 TV, KHL TV, KHL TV HD and Rossiya 2 will all broadcast the game live, while you can also keep up to date with events by following either our matchcentre, or our official twitter account.