Yugra - SKA. Match day

SKA will continue their away trip around Eastern Russia and Kazakhstan today with a fixture against HC Yugra in Khanty Mansiysk.

This will be the first time in over a year that our team have travelled to Khanty Mansiysk, and if SKA have won every game there in the past, today will prove to be a much tougher test. Yugra have been impressing many so far this campaign, and currently occupy fifth place of the Eastern Conference with 37 points. Nevertheless they have fallen out of form of late, and have won only one out of their past five matches (7:6 in Zagreb against Medvescak). Yugra have also been rocked by the loss of their top scorer Nikita Gusev, with the 23 year old forward having joined SKA just a few days ago. Without him Yugra still have firepower though, and ex Traktor forward Alexander Panov has 12 points (6+6) from 25 games. Georgiy Gelashvili has been their starting goaltender for much of the season, and has a 91.8% saves percentage with an average goals against average of 2.83.

Our players were left disappointed following the 2:4 defeat against HC Avtomobilist two days ago in Yekaterinburg, with Evgeny Dadonov stating that the team should perform better. Debutant Nikita Gusev impressed in that game though taking two assists, and Andrei Kuteikin netted his first goal of the season. A win today will take SKA back up to eighth place of the Western Conference.

The Yugra – SKA match will begin at 14.30 Moscow time in Khanty Mansiysk. Life78 will broadcast the game live, and you can keep up to date with events by following our official Twitter account.