SKA - Ak Bars. Match day

Today on the 9th of February, SKA will begin their final home series of the KHL regular season against Ak Bars Kazan. These two have experience against each other this campaign, with Ak Bars triumphing 3:1 in Kazan in December 2014.

The team's opponents today Ak Bars are always one of the KHL's big hitters, and this year it has been no different as they occupy first place of the Eastern Conference with 108 points. After going a long time without a win Ak Bars claimed four home victories in a row, before going down to Dynamo Moscow 1:4 in the Tatneft Arena. Both Anders Nilsson and Emil Garipov have a saves percentage of 93.3%, and Canadian forward Justin Azevedo is their top scorer with 45 points (17+28). 2013 Stanley Cup winner Sheldon Brookbank is on their books, and from 28 appearances he has 5 points (2+3),

SKA have taken two wins on the bounce against Medvescak 5:2 and Avangard 3:2, and are just about clinging on to second in the Western Conference with 115 points. However, if Dynamo Moscow win their two games in hand they will draw level with our team. 23 year old Artemiy Panarin continues to be the star man, as with 61 points (26+35) he is closing CSKA Moscow's Alexander Radulov down as the KHL's top scorer.

Out of 13 meetings against each other in the KHL SKA have come out on top nine times, with three of those victories coming on penalty shots.

The SKA - Ak Bars match will begin at 19.30 local time inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. 100 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.