SKA - Severstal. Introducing the opponents

CURRENT STANDINGS

5. SKA, 49 matches, 26 regulation victories, 1 overtime victory, 2 penalty shootout victories, 12 regulation defeats, 4 overtime defeats, 4 penalty shootout defeats, goal difference 146-108, 66 points

15. Severstal, 49 matches, 18 regulation victories, 4 overtime victories, 3 penalty shootout victories, 20 regulation defeats, 1 overtime defeat, 3 penalty shootout defeats, goal difference 120-132, 54 points

FORM

Severstal are in the midst of a gritty battle to reach the 2020/2021 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs. At the moment, the Cherepovets-based organisation find themselves in seventh spot of the Western Conference, but ninth-placed Spartak Moscow are only two points behind with only the top eight clubs qualifying for the post-season. Dinamo Minsk (5^th place, 57 points), Jokerit Helsinki (6^th place, 55 points) and Vityaz Podolsk (8^th place, 52 points) are the other teams involved in the fight to join CSKA Moscow, SKA Saint Petersburg, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Dynamo Moscow in the playoffs.

Coached by the fiery Andrei Razin, Severstal have been in somewhat inconsistent form recently, beating Dinamo Riga (home, 3:2) and Avtomobilist Yektaterinburg (away, 6:3) while conceding disappointing defeats to Dinamo Minsk (home, 1:2 SO; away, 1:2) and Salavat Yulaev (away, 2:4). Incidentally, when seeing off the challenge of Avtomobilist in the Urals, 18-year-old forward Nikita Guslistov scored an impressive hat-trick.

Severstal’s squad does indeed contain plenty of exciting talents such as Guslistov (5+1), Igor Geraskin (7+16), Daniil Vovchenko (14+7), Alexander Petunin (16+15) and Vladislav Kodola (7+18), forwards who are all under the age of 25. Razin likes his troops to compete in an aggressive, attack-minded manner at a high tempo.

This will be the fourth duel between these two clubs in the current campaign. In the preceding three games, SKA emerged victorious without exception, tallying two tense wins in Cherepovets (2:0, 3:2) and a hard-fought 2:0 triumph in Saint Petersburg. Goalkeeper Magnus Hellberg picked up two shutouts in those matches, while Andrei Kuzmenko, Miro Aaltonen, Joonas Kemppainen (3), Anton Burdasov and Evgeny Ketov registered our seven goals.

SKA managed to get back to winning ways in last week’s road trip. In Yekaterinburg, our team showed true character to launch a comeback and beat Avtomobilist 3:1 with Burdasov, Ivan Morozov and Maxim Groshev hitting the target, before excellent markers from Igor Ozhiganov, Vasily Podkolzin and Kemppainen subsequently secured a nervy 3:1 win against Vityaz in Podolsk. Hellberg (17 matches, 92.8%, 1.94, 2 shutouts) was in our net in those particular games, stopping 33 of the 35 shots he faced.

POINTS LEADERS IN LAST FIVE MATCHES

SKA

Andrei Kuzmenko: 5 (3+2) points

Anton Burdasov: 5 (1+4) points

Joonas Kemppainen: 4 (1+3) points

SEVERSTAL

Jacob Berglund: 5 (2+3) points

Nikita Guslistov: 4 (3+1) points

Igor Geraskin: 4 (0+4) points

25-year-old Vladislav Podyapolsky has featured in 37 of Severstal 49 matches to date. A solid figure in net, the goalkeeper has recorded a 91.1% save percentage, a goals against average of 2.51 and three shutouts for Severstal, and he did catch the eye in his team’s first three games against SKA. Dmitry Shugaev (17 matches, 91.1%, 2.48) and Konstantin Shostak (2 matches, 90.9%, 3.67) have also participated in goal for Severstal.

Alexander Samonov (15 matches, 91.3%, 2.42) is back in the squad for SKA after missing the away series against CSKA Moscow (1:3), Avtomobilist (3:1) and Vityaz (3:1). 18-year-old Yaroslav Askarov (9 matches, 95.1%, 1.21, 1 shutout) saved 24 of CSKA’s 27 shots on January 17 in Moscow.

WHERE TO WATCH

Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time at the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. KHL TV HD and Channel 78 (Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region only) will provide a television broadcast in Russia, whereas you can purchase a live video on the KHL’s official website. Text updates will be available on our Twitter account.