SKA vs Ak Bars. What will the championship leader show in the match against the Kazan club?

The central match of the next game day in the KHL will be held on February 3 in St. Petersburg. The best team of the championship is St. Petersburg SKA, the home arena will host guests from Kazan - hockey club Ak Bars.

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on SKA vs Ak Bars

SKA

The army machine slowed down somewhat, which, however, has a logical explanation. An almost perfect performance in the first half of the championship allowed the St. Petersburg team to create a decent points lead over their direct competitors, killing the championship intrigue by January. Separate misfires, which have become noticeably more lately, do not affect the standings of SKA, for several months now the points gap has been in the range of 10-15 points. At the moment, the Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo is closest to the St. Petersburg team in the championship, lagging behind the St. Petersburg team by 13 points.

By the way, it was against Torpedo that the army team played their last game in the championship at the moment. The result was surprising, despite the support of the home stands and the absence of several key hockey players from the car factory, the St. Petersburg team could not win. The main time of the match ended with a 1-1 draw, and in the shootout series, all 5 shots of SKA hockey players were unsuccessful. Avtozavodtsy implemented one of their attempts, thereby gaining a sensational away victory.

Ak Bars

If the St. Petersburg club in recent matches does not particularly please its fans, then Barca, on the contrary, after a resounding failure in the first half of the championship, seriously added, at least in terms of scoring. The Kazan miracle has a specific name - Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. The venerable specialist, who led Ak Bars to the Gagarin Cup three times, once again returned to his native club. It is too early to call the return triumphant, but in terms of scoring, Barça have noticeably improved.

If before the appearance of Bilyaletdinov on the coaching bridge, Bars were balancing on the border of the cup eight, risking at some point to be left without the playoffs, now Ak Bars is already seriously claiming the championship in the Eastern Conference, having come close to the leaders. At the moment, the Kazan club has 73 points and the current third position in the East. Kazan is only two points away from top-ranked Siberia, while Barca have played two games less, meaning they are potentially the best team in the Eastern Conference right now. The only complaint about the current playing style of the team is excessive pragmatism, which results in extremely low performance. Thus, the average performance of the team in the last 10 matches is at the level of 2.5 goals per game. Rescues the defense - only 12 missed goals in 10 matches played.

SKA vs Ak Bars

Statistics

St. Petersburg is quite a hospitable city for Bars in terms of the latest head-to-head results against SKA. So, since 2015, Kazan won seven times on the banks of the Neva, while the army team won only three home victories during this period. The only meeting of rivals in the current championship took place on November 17 in Kazan and ended with a convincing victory for Ak Bars with a score of 5-2. At the same time, the overall statistics of meetings between SKA and Ak Bars in the KHL are still in favor of the St. Petersburg club, the army team won 18 meetings, while the Kazan team had 16 wins.

Odds from download 1xbet

The bookmaker believes that in the upcoming match the chain of failures of the St. Petersburg club will be interrupted and the army team will win a long-awaited victory. You can bet on this option of the outcome of the match in 1xbet bookmaker with a coefficient of 1.91. The victory of the guest team is also offered with a coefficient of 3.95, a draw result - 4.3. Curious quotes for the base KHL total performance of 4.5: Total over (4.5) - 1.91, Total under (4.5) - 1.89. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

As mentioned above, the army team in recent matches do not look the best way, and first of all it concerns the star attack of the St. Petersburg club. So, over the last two games (125 minutes of playing time), the army team managed to score only one goal, having managed to leave the ice without goals for the first time this season (0-1 defeat from Lokomotiv). Now Ak Bars is coming to visit, who, with the advent of Bilyaletdinov, plays purely defensive hockey, excluding any risk from his actions as much as possible. Everything suggests that the meeting will be stingy on abandoned washers, the game of teams in defense will come to the fore. Our prediction is Total Under 4.5 with odds of 1.89.

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