Avtomobilist vs SKA. Are the Urals ready to present another sensation?
The fourth match of the second round of the Gagarin Cup between Avtomobilist and SKA will take place on March 23. The venue of the match is Yekaterinburg “Uralets Arena”. At the moment the score in the series is 3-0 in favor of Avtomobilist.
No matter how Avtomobilist’s current series against St. Petersburg SKA ends, this season has already become the most successful in the history of the Ural club. The only time Avtomobilist reached the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup was in the 2018/19 season, but there they lost to Ufa’s Salavat Yulaev in five matches, managing to win only one victory. Now Avtomobilist already has three victories and is one step away from reaching the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup.
Avtomobilist has already left one championship favorite out of work, having quite confidently dealt with Kazan Ak Bars in the first round. If we leave out the failed fourth match, in which Avtomobilist lost heavily with a score of 0-5, in the remaining matches the Urals were almost flawless in defense, as eloquently evidenced by the results of the matches won 2-1, 4-0, 3-1 and again 2 -1. Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team surprised even more at the start of the quarterfinal series, managing to win twice in St. Petersburg. Another excellent defensive game, which allowed Avtomobilist to win two away victories in a row 3-1 and 3-2. The first match in Yekaterinburg followed a similar scenario. Avtomobilist, through the efforts of Golyshev, opened the scoring, the St. Petersburg team equalized in the third period, but in overtime Curtis Volk once again punished the army team for a mistake in their zone, thereby bringing the Urals their third victory in the series.
SKA
After the departure of the capital CSKA and Kazan Ak Bars from the Cup, many experts called SKA the main favorite in the fight for the Gagarin Cup. The St. Petersburg club was the best in terms of points scored in the second half of the regular season, in all scenarios it should have won the Continental Cup, but an inexplicable home defeat in the last match from Kunlun left SKA in the final second place. The playoffs for the army team began with a home defeat from Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo 2-5, but in the end this failure turned out to be the only one for SKA in the first round. Four victories in a row only emphasized the difference in class between the teams, and the St. Petersburg team confidently advanced to the second round.
The St. Petersburg team started the second round according to a similar scenario. This time, SKA lost two home matches in a row, giving the Urals an excellent head start at the start of the series. The army team was close to a third defeat in a row, but 9 minutes before the end of regular time, Arseniy Gritsyuk managed to equalize the score, thereby sending the game into overtime. Overtime passed with a noticeable advantage for the SKA hockey players, but Fedotov’s monstrous shotgun shot allowed Avtomobilist to finish the game in their favor.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Avtomobilist vs SKA
AvtomobilistNo matter how Avtomobilist’s current series against St. Petersburg SKA ends, this season has already become the most successful in the history of the Ural club. The only time Avtomobilist reached the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup was in the 2018/19 season, but there they lost to Ufa’s Salavat Yulaev in five matches, managing to win only one victory. Now Avtomobilist already has three victories and is one step away from reaching the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup.
Avtomobilist has already left one championship favorite out of work, having quite confidently dealt with Kazan Ak Bars in the first round. If we leave out the failed fourth match, in which Avtomobilist lost heavily with a score of 0-5, in the remaining matches the Urals were almost flawless in defense, as eloquently evidenced by the results of the matches won 2-1, 4-0, 3-1 and again 2 -1. Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team surprised even more at the start of the quarterfinal series, managing to win twice in St. Petersburg. Another excellent defensive game, which allowed Avtomobilist to win two away victories in a row 3-1 and 3-2. The first match in Yekaterinburg followed a similar scenario. Avtomobilist, through the efforts of Golyshev, opened the scoring, the St. Petersburg team equalized in the third period, but in overtime Curtis Volk once again punished the army team for a mistake in their zone, thereby bringing the Urals their third victory in the series.
SKA
After the departure of the capital CSKA and Kazan Ak Bars from the Cup, many experts called SKA the main favorite in the fight for the Gagarin Cup. The St. Petersburg club was the best in terms of points scored in the second half of the regular season, in all scenarios it should have won the Continental Cup, but an inexplicable home defeat in the last match from Kunlun left SKA in the final second place. The playoffs for the army team began with a home defeat from Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo 2-5, but in the end this failure turned out to be the only one for SKA in the first round. Four victories in a row only emphasized the difference in class between the teams, and the St. Petersburg team confidently advanced to the second round.
The St. Petersburg team started the second round according to a similar scenario. This time, SKA lost two home matches in a row, giving the Urals an excellent head start at the start of the series. The army team was close to a third defeat in a row, but 9 minutes before the end of regular time, Arseniy Gritsyuk managed to equalize the score, thereby sending the game into overtime. Overtime passed with a noticeable advantage for the SKA hockey players, but Fedotov’s monstrous shotgun shot allowed Avtomobilist to finish the game in their favor.
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