Vityaz vs Neftekhimik. Will the Moscow Region club continue its winning streak?
For Vityaz, the next game week of the KHL regular season will end with a home match against Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik. The meeting will be held on February 5 in Balashikha.
With his game in the last matches of the regular season, the Moscow Region Vityaz made a significant bid to get into the cup eight. A serious decline in results, which happened to the Moscow Region club in the middle of the season, did not become fatal. The coaching staff of Vyacheslav Butsaev managed to make the necessary game adjustments and after the New Year holidays the team began to play again, gaining points quite regularly. Now the Knight is comfortably settled in the sixth position of the Western Conference, not having much chance to step up, but at the same time creating a decent backlog from his pursuers. Vityaz's direct competitors for a place in the playoffs are three clubs - Dynamo Minsk, Severstal and Spartak. From the capital Spartak, which now just occupies the 9th position, the Moscow Region team is already separated by 10 points, so a few more victories guarantee Vityaz getting into the playoffs.
As for the current form of Vyacheslav Butsaev's wards, everything here is quite optimistic. In the last 10 matches, Vityaz scored 16 points, which is the best result of all teams in the Western Conference in this tournament segment. In fairness, it is worth noting that, by the will of the calendar, the Moscow Region club won four out of these 8 victories over HC Sochi, the main outsider of the current championship.
Neftekhimik
If Vityaz practically guaranteed himself participation in the cup spring, then for Neftekhimik the playoffs have in fact already started now. This is due to the extraordinary density at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, where four teams equally claim one vacant place in the playoffs, one of which is Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik. At the moment, the cherished eighth line is occupied by the Khabarovsk Amur, which has 61 points scored in its asset. Neftekhimik is on the line below, with 59 points scored, sitting in 9th place. Even lower are Barys - 57 points and Traktor - 56. In the current situation, each point scored is worth its weight in gold, so the February games promise to be unusually hot.
Neftekhimik has not left the ice without scoring points for 6 matches in a row. Wards of Oleg Leontiev defeated Salavat Yulaev 5-2, Avangard 2-1 and twice Avtomobilist 2-1 and 4-3. Both defeats in this tournament segment happened outside of normal time, in the shootout Neftekhimik lost to Amur from Khabarovsk 1-2 and in overtime 3-4 to Salavat Yulaev from Ufa.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Vityaz vs Neftekhimik
VityazWith his game in the last matches of the regular season, the Moscow Region Vityaz made a significant bid to get into the cup eight. A serious decline in results, which happened to the Moscow Region club in the middle of the season, did not become fatal. The coaching staff of Vyacheslav Butsaev managed to make the necessary game adjustments and after the New Year holidays the team began to play again, gaining points quite regularly. Now the Knight is comfortably settled in the sixth position of the Western Conference, not having much chance to step up, but at the same time creating a decent backlog from his pursuers. Vityaz's direct competitors for a place in the playoffs are three clubs - Dynamo Minsk, Severstal and Spartak. From the capital Spartak, which now just occupies the 9th position, the Moscow Region team is already separated by 10 points, so a few more victories guarantee Vityaz getting into the playoffs.
As for the current form of Vyacheslav Butsaev's wards, everything here is quite optimistic. In the last 10 matches, Vityaz scored 16 points, which is the best result of all teams in the Western Conference in this tournament segment. In fairness, it is worth noting that, by the will of the calendar, the Moscow Region club won four out of these 8 victories over HC Sochi, the main outsider of the current championship.
Neftekhimik
If Vityaz practically guaranteed himself participation in the cup spring, then for Neftekhimik the playoffs have in fact already started now. This is due to the extraordinary density at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, where four teams equally claim one vacant place in the playoffs, one of which is Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik. At the moment, the cherished eighth line is occupied by the Khabarovsk Amur, which has 61 points scored in its asset. Neftekhimik is on the line below, with 59 points scored, sitting in 9th place. Even lower are Barys - 57 points and Traktor - 56. In the current situation, each point scored is worth its weight in gold, so the February games promise to be unusually hot.
Neftekhimik has not left the ice without scoring points for 6 matches in a row. Wards of Oleg Leontiev defeated Salavat Yulaev 5-2, Avangard 2-1 and twice Avtomobilist 2-1 and 4-3. Both defeats in this tournament segment happened outside of normal time, in the shootout Neftekhimik lost to Amur from Khabarovsk 1-2 and in overtime 3-4 to Salavat Yulaev from Ufa.
Comments 0