SKA - Ak Bars. Match day

Following the 3:1 away win over HC Spartak Moscow on Wednesday, SKA have returned home to play Ak Bars Kazan in a rerun of the 2014/2015 KHL Gagarin Cup final.

Both SKA and Ak Bars have found it hard going this campaign after last season, and the Kazan outfit have only 28 points from 20 games played. That puts them in ninth of the Eastern Conference, and they face a real battle just to make the post-season. During the summer big name defencemen Ilya Nikulin and Evgeny Medvedev took their leave as well as star goaltender Anders Nilsson, and they haven’t really been able to replace them effectively. New goalkeeper Jussi Rynnas hasn’t impressed with an 89.9% saves percentage, and they have already let in 48 goals. Nevertheless young defenceman Albert Yarullin has been solid at the blue line with already seven points to his name (3+4), and in attack Justin Azevedo has taken nineteen points (6+13). In recent matches they have been rather inconsistent, and have not been able to string two wins together.

SKA got back on track against Spartak two days ago, with goals from Alexander Barabanov, Dmitry Kalinin and Jarno Koskiranta firing the team to a 3:1 victory in the Luzhinki Arena. Confidence should be high after that, however the team’s main problems have come at home with only two wins inside the Ice Palace to date.

The SKA – Ak Bars match will begin at 19.30 local time inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. Life78, Rossiya 2 and KHL TV HD will both broadcast the game live, and you can keep up to date with events by following our official Twitter account.

Also, we'd like to remind you that Ilya Kovalchuk's championship winning jersey is going on auction! You can find all of the details right here.