Thursday Tatar test

Having returned to action in confident fashion on Tuesday, SKA are looking to generate more positive momentum in Saint Petersburg this evening as Tatar giants Ak Bars visit.

SHAKY START SOON BRUSHED OFF

Ak Bars’ rocky start to the campaign sparked increasing loud rumours that head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin was on the verge of receiving the sack. However, the 49-year-old successfully steadied the ship in the Tatar capital, steering his troops to second spot in the Eastern Conference thanks to a huge upturn in fortunes which included an 11-game winning streak.

The Kazan-based outfit are indeed coming into this match on the back of six wins in seven. Boasting the likes of familiar faces Ilya Karpukhin, Stepan Falkovsky, Alexander Barabanov and Dmitrij Jaskin on their books, the star-studded Tatars have plenty of firepower at their disposal, scoring 112 goals in just 37 games and tallying a minimum of four markers in four of their most recent six fixtures.

They resumed their league campaign earlier this week following the international break with a resounding 6:3 home thrashing of arch-rivals Salavat Yulaev, with their top line of Mitchell Miller (0+1), Nikita Lyamkin (0+2), Jaskin (1+1), Kirill Semyonov (1+0) and Barabanov (0+3) amassing a grand total of nine points! No surprise as to who SKA need to keep an eye on tonight…

Miller and Lyamkin are of course the main danger men at the blue line. 23-year-old Miller appears to have fully adapted to Russian ice hockey in this being his third campaign in Tatarstan, often joining the rush to great effect and having even registered a memorable hat-trick against Dynamo Moscow on 13 November. Lyamkin, regarded as one of the league’s most technical defensemen, has caught the eye with 19 assists to his name.

One aspect of their game which has been lacking throughout is their goalkeeping. In an attempt to resolve the ongoing issue, Ak Bars opted to offload ex-SKA representative Mikhail Berdin to Sibir Novosibirsk, promoting Maxim Arefyev from the VHL as his replacement. And Arefyev has impressed in the Kazan net since making the jump to the KHL, only conceding eight goals from 103 shots and earning an important win against Ufa.

This will be the second meeting between these two particular teams after Ak Bars ran out comfortable 5:2 winners in Kazan on 28 November. Nonetheless, despite the negative result, the in-form Brendan Leipsic stood out with two clever markers for SKA.

LEADERS*

GOALKEEPERS

Timur Bilyalov: 26 matches, 16 wins, 91.6% save percentage, 2.43 GAA, 2 shutouts

Maxim Arefyev: 3 matches, 1 win, 92.2% save percentage, 2.70 GAA

DEFENSEMEN

Mitchell Miller: 26 (11+15) points, +12

Nikita Lyamkin: 22 (3+19) points, +8

Ilya Karpukhin: 16 (5+11) points, +12

FORWARDS

Alexander Barabanov: 28 (7+21) points, -1

Kirill Semyonov: 26 (10+16) points, +12

Dmitrij Jaskin: 25 (15+9) points, +12

*Only taking current Ak Bars players into account

SPECIAL TEAMS

PP

116 attempts, 21 goals, 18.4% conversion rate, 14^th place

PK

128 penalties, 25 conceded goals, 80.5% success rate, 5 shorthanded goals, 9^th place

WHERE TO WATCH

Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time. You can purchase a live video broadcast on the KHL’s official website, whereas text updates are available on our official X account.