SKA vs Dynamo Minsk. Which of the opponents will start the tournament with a victory?

On August 3, with three matches, the next, seventh in a row, Sochi Hockey Open pre-season hockey tournament starts in Sochi. One of the main favorites of the KHL - SKA from St. Petersburg in the first game will examine the guests from Belarus - the hockey club Dynamo Minsk.

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on SKA vs Dynamo Minsk

SKA

The army club is rightfully considered the main favorite of the upcoming tournament. Last season, the St. Petersburg army team finished with their usual departure in the finals of the Western Conference, once again losing to teammates from Moscow. At the same time, Rotenberg's wards passed the distance of the regular season with excellent marks, taking a confident first place in the West.

As for the personnel policy of the army club in the current off-season, despite a number of noticeable losses (Johansson, Robinson, Lehtonen, Kuzmenko, Marchenko, Kemppainen left the team), the St. Petersburg club did not become weaker in name. Dmitry Yashkin returned from the NHL, the best young defender of the country Alexander Nikishin was signed from Spartak, the line of attack should be strengthened by Zhafyarov and Prokhorkin. At the moment, the goalkeeper position looks problematic, where only Alexander Samonov is listed among the experienced goalkeepers in the club's roster.

The St. Petersburg club is a permanent member of the Sochi Cup, having not missed a single tournament throughout its existence. SKA has one victory (in 2018), two second places and one third place. Last season, SKA hockey players did not perform well in Sochi, taking only fourth place with six participants.

Dynamo Minsk

Unlike their rivals in the first match, the current participation in the Sochi tournament was the first for Dynamo Minsk. The Minsk club came out of summer vacation much earlier than the St. Petersburg team, having managed to play a couple of control matches by now. Both games ended with the same score 3-2, but if the Minskers managed to beat Siberia (the goals were scored by Emelin and Pinchuk, and Emelin managed to score twice), then Dynamo lost to Severstal with the same score (Deryabin and Alistrov scored against Minskers).

At the end of the last season, which Dynamo finished at the stage of the first round of the playoffs, the line-up of the Minskers was noticeably updated. The team left immediately 16 players of the main team. Of the newcomers, it is worth noting two veterans of domestic hockey - defender Alexei Emelin and forward Nikolai Zherdev. Both have already been marked by productive actions in the first control matches.

SKA vs Dynamo Minsk

Statistics

Last season, fate brought these two clubs together in the first round of the playoffs, and at that time the advantage of St. Petersburg was unconditional. 8-3 and 3-1 in St. Petersburg, 3-2 and 4-3 in Minsk - four wins in a row allowed SKA to advance further in the cup bracket. Such a result is not surprising - SKA is historically one of the most inconvenient opponents of the Minskers in the KHL, in the last ten matches the Minsk club managed to win only one victory.

ODDs from download 1xbet

Such results in personal meetings did not go unnoticed by the bookmaker, and in the upcoming game, it is the St. Petersburg club that acts as the clear favorite. The coefficient for the victory of SKA is 1.51 in 1xbet bookmaker , while the possible success of Minskers is estimated at 5.3. It is impossible to exclude a draw at the end of regular time, a similar option is offered with a coefficient of 5. As for the total performance of the teams, the following quotes are set here: Total over (4.5) - 1.41, Total under (4.5) - 2.63. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

Both teams are just rolling into the season, being under serious training loads. In addition, SKA, and especially Dynamo, have a large number of new players, so there is no need to talk about a well-coordinated team game. It is unlikely that the upcoming match will please the fans with a large number of goals scored, so our prediction is Total Under 5.5 with odds of 1.91.

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