CSKA vs Ak Bars. Final game of the season?

The final series of the Gagarin Cup between CSKA and Ak Bars dragged on until the sixth match. Perhaps the last game in this series will take place on April 27 in Moscow, on the ice of the CSKA Arena. At the moment, CSKA leads the series with a score of 3-2.

• Expert Predictions Analysis
• Statistics
• Odds
• Game Totals Prediction

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on CSKA vs Ak Bars

CSKA

Army club mentor Sergei Fedorov is close to a unique achievement, having an excellent opportunity to become the first debutant coach in the KHL to win two Gagarin Cups in a row. With Fedorov, the army team has already won seven playoff series in a row in two years and is now one step away from winning the eighth, which will bring them the coveted Gagarin Cup.

Everything could have ended on April 25 in Kazan, in the fifth game of the final series. All the prerequisites for victory in the capital's team were. The army team won three games in a row, which only added psychological confidence to the hockey players. Moreover, forward Maxim Mamin returned to action, having missed the last three matches due to a small injury. An absolutely equal first period was blown up by 20-year-old Prokhor Poltapov, who dragged the puck across the entire site and, 4 seconds before the whistle for the first break, brought the army ahead. The army team could not keep the winning result for themselves, Barca scored once in the second and third periods, thereby reducing the gap in the final series to a minimum.

Ak Bars

The Kazan club, after three defeats in a row, literally teetered on the brink of the abyss, risking parting with the dream of the Gagarin Cup after the fifth match. An unexpected problem in the lost matches was the attack of the Bars, which has sharply lost its former effectiveness. With 88 army shots on target and only three goals scored, it's extremely hard to count on the title of the best team in the League with such statistics.

As it turned out, sometimes two abandoned goals are enough to win, provided that the defense does not allow the opponent to roam. The already not the best position of Ak Bars seriously complicated the puck in the locker room, missed literally with a whistle for a break. To the credit of Kazan, the team did not stop, starting the second game segment with a furious assault on the army gates. The leaders of the Bars came to the fore - in the 30th minute of the meeting, Shipachev assisted Radulov, who in the majority managed to equalize the score in the match. The denouement came in the third period, Stanislav Galiev on 53 minutes set the final score in the match, keeping Kazan fans hope for an honorary trophy.

Statistics

In the current final series, the army team was the first to open the score three times in the match. Another curious detail of the final confrontation is the fact that not once in the five games played was the total number of goals scored even (Odd - 1.37). As for the rivalry of these teams in Moscow, here the last 10 meetings have brought the following results - six wins for CSKA, four for Ak Bars. Moreover, the goal difference is 26-25 in favor of the Kazan club. In total, in the KHL, CSKA and Ak Bars have played 42 face-to-face meetings so far with absolute equality of victories, each of the teams has won 21 matches.

Odds from download 1xbet

In the sixth match of the series, the bookmaker is on the side of the capital's team, setting the odds of 2.21 for the victory of the army team in regular time. For comparison, a possible victory for AK Bars is set at 3.1, and a draw and subsequent overtime at 3.65. And it is already traditional for this confrontation to expect "grassroots" hockey in terms of the overall performance of the teams: Total over (4.5) - 2.27, Total under (4.5) - 1.61. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

Despite the misfire in Kazan, the army team continue to be the favorites of the series. To some extent, the capital's team was unlucky in the fifth game, when in some places elementary luck was not enough, and in some places Timur Bilyalov worked miracles at the Ak Bars goal. The return of the leading striker Mikhail Mamin, with whom CSKA's attacking triples have become familiar, plays into the hands of the army team. Everything goes to the fact that the army team will be able to beautifully close the season, having won the Gagarin Cup in front of their own fans. Our prediction is for CSKA to win in regular time with odds of 2.21.