Salavat Yulaev vs Avtomobilist. What will the teams show on the Ufa ice?

Representatives of the Eastern Conference, Salavat Yulaev and Avtomobilist, will hold a head-to-head match in Ufa on September 22 as part of the regular KHL championship. The game will take place on the ice of the Ufa Arena.

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

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Salavat Yulaev vs Avtomobilist

Salavat Yulaev

The main news of recent days from the camp of the Ufa club is the signing of American forward Josh Livo, who in his thirty years managed to play 265 matches in the NHL, appearing on the ice for such clubs as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Carolina. In fact, Livo must replace the Canadian Ho-Sang in Salavat, who frankly failed at the Ufa club. In the future, Livo must create a killer combination with his fellow countryman Alexander Khmelevski, who is currently the club's top scorer.

Salavat desperately needs a goal-scoring forward, because at the start of the championship the average performance of the Ufa team barely exceeds two goals scored per match, which is a rather mediocre result. The defense comes to the rescue; Viktor Kozlov’s team conceded 10 goals in six matches, which is the best result in the League at the moment. Now Salavat Yulaev is only seventh in the East, having scored 8 points out of 12 possible. The Ufa team will miss the next match with forward Danil Alalykin, who was injured at the start of the championship.

Avtomobilist

The Ural club also has its losses. Avtomobilist went to the capital of Bashkiria without two hockey players from the main team. Key defender Jaycee Blaker was injured in an unsuccessful game in Chelyabinsk, where Avtomobilist lost to local Traktor with a score of 1-2. Another defenseman, American Nick Ebert, has not yet appeared on the ice this season, continuing the recovery process from his injury. Some good news worth noting is the return to action of forward Anatoly Golyshev, who did not take to the ice in the last three matches.

In the Eastern Conference standings, Avtomobilist and Salavat Yulaev are located next door; the Urals are sixth with 9 points, but have played two more matches. The current away series is going extremely poorly for Avtomobilist, during which Nikolai Zavarukhin’s men have already lost two matches in a row. The first misfire came in the game against Traktor 1-2, and then Avtomobilist also lost 2-4 away to Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

Statistics

Salavat Yulaev has never conceded more than two goals per game this season. This is also evidenced by Avtomobilist's performance in recent faceoffs against Ufa. Since the 2021/22 season, the Uralians have failed to score more than two goals per game against Salavat Yulaev in the last six meetings Individual Total 2 under (2.5) 1.78. Last season, both games of these teams in Ufa followed a similar scenario. Both games ended in a draw in regulation time, and the result was the same 2-2, but in overtime twice Salavat Yulaev took the upper hand. The rivals have already played in Ekaterinburg this season, and that game was a 2-1 win for the home team.

Odds from download 1xbet

In the upcoming match, the bookmaker gives a slight preference to the home team, setting odds of 2.32 for Salavat to win in regular time. For comparison, a possible victory for Avtomobilist can be taken with odds of 2.75, another draw in regular time – 4.1. Quotes for basic KHL performance look interesting. This time 1xbet offers the following odds: total over (4.5) – 1.59, total under (4.5) – 2.31. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

Both teams are far from their ideal form, and this primarily concerns creative actions. Both teams, even by KHL standards, cannot boast of high performance, placing a serious emphasis on defensive actions. It is unlikely that any of the opponents will radically change their game plan for this match, so there is no point in expecting an abundance of goals in this match. Our forecast is Total Under (5.5) with odds of 1.72.