Round two against high-flying Avtomobilist

With revenge on their minds, SKA will face Avtomobilist for the second time in a week, albeit with this KHL clash set to be contested in Saint Petersburg.

HOT STREAK CONTINUES AMID INJURY CRISIS

Matters couldn’t really be any better for Avtomobilist as they head into today’s showdown. Including their recent OT home victory over SKA, the Yekaterinburg-based outfit have now won six on the spin, barely conceding any goals along the way and twice overpowering a strong Avangard team by a combined score of 7:1. Such impressive form has allowed them to move into second spot of the Eastern Conference, trailing leaders Metallurg Magnitogorsk by only a mere three points.

Nevertheless, despite Avtomobilist’s formidable form, our preceding duel against these opponents should provide us with confidence. In a hard-fought battle last Wednesday in the Urals, our players opened the scoring and had plenty of clear chances in front of goal, however the hosts equalised on the PP before grabbing the winner in the early stages of overtime. While a positive game only yielded one point, it did prove that SKA are more than capable of dealing what Avtomobilist throw at them.

Although they’re in great shape in terms of results, Avtomobilist do have injury problems on their hands. On one hand, forwards Stephane Da Costa and Brooks Macek were declared fit enough for the trip to Saint Petersburg, but on the other, key defensemen Sergei Zborovsky, Maxim Osipov, Nikita Tryamkin and forwards Reid Boucher and Stepan Khripunov remained in Yekaterinburg as they continue to recover from knocks. 32-year-old Boucher is a particularly big miss considering that he’s Avtomobilist’s leading scorer with 11 points on the board.

A key factor of Yekaterinburg’s recent success has been their watertight goaltending; the fact that they haven’t conceded more than two goals in a single match since 26 September speaks volumes. Vladimir Galkin has been the stand-out figure in the Avtomobilist net, boasting impressive statistics and having only lost one of his eight games so far. The more experienced Evgeny Alikin might not possess such strong numbers, but he stopped 29 of SKA’s 30 attempts last week and earned plaudits for his reliable showing.

Coached by the pragmatic Nikolai Zavarukhin, Avtomobilist like to compete in a pro-active, aggressive manner, pressing hard in the attacking zone while also not forgetting to track back in defence and make it hard for opposing teams to break them down. Desperate to finally get back to winning ways, SKA will have to produce a much-improved all-round performance to avenge Wednesday’s setback.

LEADERS

GOALKEEPERS

Vladimir Galkin: 8 matches, 7 wins, 94.6% save percentage, 1.74 GAA, 1 shutout

Evgeny Alikin: 7 matches, 3 wins, 91.5% save percentage, 2.60 GAA

DEFENSEMEN

Jesse Blacker: 10 (3+10) points, +4

Dmitry Yudin: 3 (1+2) points, +5

Yaroslav Busygin: 3 (1+2) points, +4

FORWARDS

Reid Boucher: 11 (4+7) points, 0

Roman Gorbunov: 10 (7+3) points, +9

Danil Romantsev: 10 (5+5) points, +5

SPECIAL TEAMS

PP

49 attempts, 10 goals, 20.4% conversion rate, 11^th place

PK

58 attempts, 10 conceded goals, 82.8% success rate, 2 shorthanded goals, 9^th place

WHERE TO WATCH

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