Avangard vs Salavat Yulaev. Who will be stronger in the confrontation between neighbors in the standings?

Direct competitors in the Eastern Conference, Avangard and Salavat Yulaev, will hold a head-to-head match in Omsk on October 26. The meeting will take place on the ice of the local G-DRIVE Arena.

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

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Avangard vs Salavat Yulaev

Avangard

Omsk managed to somewhat smooth out the impressions of the unsuccessful away series, quite sensationally beating the leader of the Eastern Conference, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, on the road. Having started this series with two similar defeats from Vityaz 2-5 and Lada 3-5, Avangard showed character, managing to win a strong-willed victory over Metallurg. The decisive goal was Reed Boucher's goal in the second minute of overtime. For the Canadian forward, this goal was his 12th this season; according to this indicator, he is the best on the team by a noticeable margin, five goals ahead of second-placed Vladimir Tkachev.

The success in Magnitogorsk is more of a local nature; the overall impression of Avangard’s play this season is rather negative. The massive outflow of leaders could not pass without a trace, and at the moment Omsk residents are in search of their game. The team has 11 wins in 20 matches played, which corresponds to sixth position in the Eastern Conference standings. At the same time, Avangard may well take a serious step up - the gap from third place is only three points, or fall outside the cup eight, with the team separated from ninth place by only two points.

Salavat Yulaev

The Ufa team had an ideal championship period in October, managing to win five victories in a row. In addition to the ten points scored, Salavat Yulaev surprised everyone with his extraordinary performance, scoring 26 goals in these matches. The winning streak of the Ufa team unexpectedly ended in Minsk, where in the game against the local Dynamo Salavat led the score 2-0, but allowed the hosts to first send the game into overtime, and then completely missed the final goal in the second minute of the extra five minutes.

An unpleasant surprise for the Ufa club was the injury of the team's newcomer, Canadian forward Josh Leivo. The striker made a bright debut in the KHL, scoring two goals and giving one assist in the first two matches, but was injured in the victorious match against Vityaz. According to preliminary forecasts, Leivo will be out for three weeks and Yulaev will not play for Salavat in October. However, thanks to a series of successful matches, the Ufa team rose to fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Salavat Yulaev has 25 points, seven points behind the leader Metallurg, while the Ufa team played three fewer matches.

Statistics

The Ufa team has recently added significantly to their offence, not only in home games, but also in away games. Thus, in the last five away games, the Ufa team scored 19 goals, that is an average of four goals per game Individual Total 2 over (3.5) 3.65. Last season the teams played six face-to-face games, and each team won three times. The history of Avangard and Salavat Yulaev in the KHL totals 79 meetings, 43 wins for the Omsk club, while the Ufa club won 36 games. The puck difference is 214-213 in favour of Avangard.

Odds from download 1xbet

Given the relative equality of the class of teams, the bookmaker gives a slight advantage to the Omsk club, offering odds of 2.31 for Avangard to win in regular time. The chances of Salavat’s final success are estimated at 2.75; the option with a draw in the main time of the match can be taken at 4.2. The last matches played by both teams turned out to be productive, so you shouldn’t be surprised at the proposed quotes for the total goals scored: total over (4.5) – 1.63, total under (4.5) – 2.24. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

A distinctive feature of both teams this season is the lack of any stability in results. Both Avangard and Salavat Yulaev can produce a high-quality time period, but the teams are unable to maintain such a pace over the distance. At the same time, lately there has been a noticeable bias in the play of both teams in favor of attack. In October, Avangard’s average performance is at the level of three goals per match, while for Salavat this figure is even higher - around four goals per match. There are all the prerequisites for the head-to-head match to be productive. Our prediction is Total Over 5.5 with odds of 2.22.