CSKA vs Torpedo. The fight for silver continues
The last game week of the KHL regular championship for the capital's army team starts with a home match against Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo. The meeting of teams from the leading group of the Western Conference will be held on February 20 in Moscow, on the ice of the CSKA Arena.
The current holders of the Gagarin Cup, the capital's army team, continue to fight for the final second place in the conference, having lost all chances to catch up with the leading teammates from St. Petersburg. The army team was noticeably knocked down by not the best start in the championship, which immediately threw the wards of Sergei Fedorov into the middle of the standings. By the equator of the championship, the army team picked up their usual pace, but they could not catch up with the eternal competitors from SKA. Nevertheless, the army team returned to the group of leaders, concentrating on the fight for virtual silver. Now CSKA has 86 points and the current fourth place in the West. Direct competitors, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv and Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, have respectively 88 and 87 points, while the railwaymen played two matches more.
Some concern is the current form of the army. After a powerful stretch in the middle of the championship, the capital club slowed down somewhat, having suffered three defeats in the last ten days alone. Moreover, twice the army team lost on home ice (5-6 to Barys and 1-4 to Lokomotiv), which has not happened so often with CSKA in recent years. Another defeat came in an away match against Salavat Yulaev, the Ufa team won with a score of 2-1. In the remaining matches of the regular championship, the army team will have to play just with Lokomotiv and Torpedo, the results of these matches will largely be decisive in the battle for second place.
Torpedo
The Avtozavodsk team should be recognised as the main revelation of the current championship. One of the youngest teams in the KHL, led by a debutant coach, with no bright stars on the roster - there were no special prerequisites for a qualitative breakthrough after last year's ninth-place finish and not making the playoffs. The Nizhny Novgorod club put the skeptics to shame. Throughout the season, the Avtomobilets were among the best teams in the Western Conference, eliminating any question of making the playoffs long before the end of the regular season. Currently, Torpedo are one point ahead of the Army team in the standings.
The Torpedo team played six games in February, winning four of those games. Once again, it is worth noting the Torpedo attack, in four won games, Avtovodtsy threw 17 pucks, five times firing the defense of Siberia and Salavat Yulaev, four pucks were in the gate of Spartak Moscow. The Torpedo team finished second in the league in the number of pucks scored, 190 goals behind only SKA St. Petersburg.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on CSKA vs Torpedo
CSKAThe current holders of the Gagarin Cup, the capital's army team, continue to fight for the final second place in the conference, having lost all chances to catch up with the leading teammates from St. Petersburg. The army team was noticeably knocked down by not the best start in the championship, which immediately threw the wards of Sergei Fedorov into the middle of the standings. By the equator of the championship, the army team picked up their usual pace, but they could not catch up with the eternal competitors from SKA. Nevertheless, the army team returned to the group of leaders, concentrating on the fight for virtual silver. Now CSKA has 86 points and the current fourth place in the West. Direct competitors, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv and Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, have respectively 88 and 87 points, while the railwaymen played two matches more.
Some concern is the current form of the army. After a powerful stretch in the middle of the championship, the capital club slowed down somewhat, having suffered three defeats in the last ten days alone. Moreover, twice the army team lost on home ice (5-6 to Barys and 1-4 to Lokomotiv), which has not happened so often with CSKA in recent years. Another defeat came in an away match against Salavat Yulaev, the Ufa team won with a score of 2-1. In the remaining matches of the regular championship, the army team will have to play just with Lokomotiv and Torpedo, the results of these matches will largely be decisive in the battle for second place.
Torpedo
The Avtozavodsk team should be recognised as the main revelation of the current championship. One of the youngest teams in the KHL, led by a debutant coach, with no bright stars on the roster - there were no special prerequisites for a qualitative breakthrough after last year's ninth-place finish and not making the playoffs. The Nizhny Novgorod club put the skeptics to shame. Throughout the season, the Avtomobilets were among the best teams in the Western Conference, eliminating any question of making the playoffs long before the end of the regular season. Currently, Torpedo are one point ahead of the Army team in the standings.
The Torpedo team played six games in February, winning four of those games. Once again, it is worth noting the Torpedo attack, in four won games, Avtovodtsy threw 17 pucks, five times firing the defense of Siberia and Salavat Yulaev, four pucks were in the gate of Spartak Moscow. The Torpedo team finished second in the league in the number of pucks scored, 190 goals behind only SKA St. Petersburg.
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