SKA - Jokerit. Match day

Following a four match away series, SKA have returned to Saint Petersburg to take on arch rivals HC Jokerit Helsinki from Finland.

This is Jokerit's second KHL campaign, and in the first they made a huge impression. Despite being debutants the Finns took the league by storm, and capped a successful regular season off by making the Western Conference semi finals (eventually losing to HC CSKA Moscow 1:4). Their experience should make them even stronger this time around, although they have lost a number of key figures. KHL recordsman Steve Moses has taken his leave for the Nashville Predators, Linus Omark joined Salavat Yulaev Ufa, and Ryan Gunderson signed for Dinamo Minsk. Nevertheless their replacements have been impressing so far, and new forwards Brandon Kozun, Pekka Jormakka and Peter Regin have particularly been excellent with a combined 38 points (14+24). Their productiveness has fired Jokerit to the top of the overall KHL table with 28 points, and they have lost only one game in normal time.

SKA are coming off the back of a promising road trip, having taken eight points from four apearances. The pick of those games was a 2:1 victory over CSKA, where despite registering only 13 shots on goal the team took all the points mainly thanks to Ilya Ezhov's 31 save performance. Vadim Shipachyov continues to be the team's points scorer with 13 (3+10).

These two teams met twice during the pre season, with SKA coming out on top 5:3 both in Helsinki and Saint Petersburg.

The SKA - Jokerit match will begin at 19.30 local time inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. 100 TV and KHL TV will both broadcast the game live, and you can keep up to date with events by following our official Twitter account.