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Five games promise an intense KHL Friday
The race for playoff positions heats up across the league, with Admiral hosting Spartak in Vladivostok and Avangard seeking to turn its season around against Avtomobilist. In the East, the action continues with second-placed Neftekhimik taking on Traktor, who is looking to build on a big win in St. Petersburg. In the West, Torpedo faces Dynamo Moscow in a First Teams’ Cup clash, while the Shanghai Dragons welcome Ak Bars in a matchup featuring several former Kazan players.
The matchday starts in the Far East again, this time in Vladivostok, with Admiral hosting Spartak. The Sailors proved to be in decent shape of late, with two wins in the last three matches, over Metallurg (5-2) and Lada (4-3 OT). Despite the recent success, Admiral remains outside of the playoff places in the Eastern Conference. Since the start of the season, the Sailors struggled in finding the back of the net, and to try to solve the situation they inked Croatian forward Borna Rendulic, who will enter his sixth season in our League. Most recently, he had twenty goals and 24 assists with the Shanghai Dragons. The Muscovites have now three wins in a row (and a 3-4 SO loss to Barys) that allowed them to climb up in the standings. However, the Red-and-Whites will need another win to get to the Western top four.
In Omsk, Avangard will seek a return to winning ways in a home game against Avtomobilist. The Hawks are sensationally at the bottom of the Eastern Conference’s standings and today they will try to take off after four losses in the last five matches. Avangard snatched a win in Nizhnekamsk last Thursday (1-0), but failed to repeat the trick in a visit to Astana two days later (1-5). As the team returned home, Guy Boucher will try to lead his team to a win again, but the Hawks will need to score more as they have only 22 goals so far – only HC Sochi netted fewer goals than them in the league (19). It will be the third meeting between the two teams in the current season, with the sides trading wins so far. The last meeting was ten days ago, when the Motormen shut out Avangard in Yekaterinburg (4-0). After that game, the Motormen also fell to Barys (1-4), slipping down to the eighth place in the Eastern table.
In the third and last Eastern game of the day, Neftekhimik welcomes Traktor. The Chelyabinsk side started its current road trip with a bang, snatching a 6-2 win in St. Petersburg against the Shanghai Dragons. It was an important victory for Traktor, who lost the previous three matches, twice to Amur (1-2, 0-2) and to Sibir (1-2). With the win, Traktor surpassed Avangard in the Eastern table, as the Chelyabinsk side will want to climb up further. Neftekhimik is currently on a two-game losing streak. After its loss to Avangard, the team also suffered a 3-4 loss to Salavat Yulaev in Ufa on Monday. Despite the setback, the Wolves are still the second team in the Eastern Conference, and today they will try to revert the trend.
The action then moves to the West, starting with a First Teams’ Cup’s game between Torpedo and Dynamo Moscow. After a nice winning streak, the Nizhny Novgorod side has now two defeats in a row, losing 2-3 to both Sevestal and Metallurg – this last game in extra-time. Torpedo remains in the top four in the Western Conference’s standings. Dynamo Moscow continues to struggle. After an encouraging 4-3 OT home win over SKA, Leonids Tambijevs’ men suffered another loss, this time against CSKA (0-1) as the Blue-and-Whites failed to return to playoff places – at least for now. Earlier in the season, Torpedo defeated Dynamo Moscow on Oct. 1 on the road.
In the last game of the day, the Shanghai Dragons host Ak Bars. For the first time this season, Dmitrij Jaskin, who joined Shanghai from the Kazan club over the summer, will face his former team. The matchup will also carry extra significance for Amir Miftakhov, an Ak Bars product, and Nick Petan, who previously played for the Kazan side. Can former Ak Bars captain Jaskin help his new team snap its losing streak against his former club? The Dragons have not beaten Ak Bars since November 2023. Ak Bars is currently on a four-game losing streak and slipped down to seventh place in the East. The Dragons lost to Dinamo Minsk (2-3) and Traktor (2-6), and will equally seek a return to winning ways.
12:30: Admiral (5-6-3, 9th E) vs Spartak (8-5-2, 5th W)
About the game
Admiral enters the second game of a four-match home series following a win over Lada on Saturday (4-3 OT).
Spartak wraps up a four-game road trip on a three-match winning streak.
Admiral’s forward Daniel Usmanov had an assist in each of his previous four matches.
Injury list
Admiral: Ivan Kulbakov, Artyom Pimenov.
Spartak: Alexander Bryntsev, Demid Mansurov, German Rubtsov.
16:30: Avangard (6-7-0, 11th E) vs Avtomobilist (6-6-2, 8th E)
About the game
Avangard starts a three-game home series following a loss to Barys on Saturday (1-5).
Avtomobilist enters the second game of a four-match road trip after a loss also to Barys on Wednesday (1-4).
The teams traded wins earlier in the season (3-2 OT, 0-4).
Avtomobilist’s goalie Evgeny Alikin is on a 71:02 shutout streak.
Injury list
Avangard: Yegor Afanasyev, Maxime Lajoie, Pavel Leuka, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Alexander Volkov.
Avtomobilist: Vladimir Galkin, Nikita Shashkov.
Milestone alert
Avangard’s defenseman Semyon Chistyakov and forward Dmitry Rashevsky line up for their 400th league appearance, while forward Vasily Ponomaryov reaches 100.
Avtomobilist’s goalie Evgeny Alikin may record his 30th career shutout.
19:00: Neftekhimik (8-5-2, 2nd E) vs Traktor (6-8-0, 10th E)
About the game
Neftekhimik plays the lone game of the home series on a two-game losing streak.
Traktor is in the middle of a three-game road trip started with a win over the Shanghai Dragons on Wednesday (6-2).
Injury list
Traktor: Vitaly Kravtsov.
Milestone alert
Neftekhimik’s forward Ivan Nikolishin lines up for his 400th league appearance.
Neftekhimik’s forward Andrei Belozyorov may reach 100 career assists (currently at 99).
Traktor’s forward Mikhail Grigorenko may tally his 200th goal in the KHL (currently at 199).
19:00: Torpedo (9-4-1, 4th) vs Dynamo Moscow (6-9-2, 9th W)
About the game
Torpedo, who defeated Dynamo Moscow earlier in the season (3-1), ends a three-game home series following two straight defeats.
Dynamo Moscow is in the middle of a three-game road trip started with a loss to CSKA on Wednesday (0-1).
Torpedo’s forward Vladimir Tkachyov is on a four-game scoring streak, with 6 (2+4) points over that stretch.
Injury list
Torpedo: Denis Kostin.
Dynamo Moscow: Dmitry Rimashevsky, Nikita Tertyshny.
Milestone alert
Dynamo Moscow’s goalie Maxim Motorygin may record his 10th KHL shutout.
19:30: Shanghai Dragons (8-4-1, 6th W) vs Ak Bars (7-7-1, 7th E)
About the game
The Shanghai Dragons end a three-game home series after a couple of losses.
Ak Bars starts a two-game road trip on a four-match losing streak.
Shanghai Dragons’ forward Dmitrij Jaskin scored a goal in each of his previous three matches.
Injury list
Shanghai Dragons: Martin Frk.
Ak Bars: Artyom Galimov.
Milestone alert
Shanghai Dragons’ forward Dmitrij Jaskin may reach 350 points in the KHL (currently at 349).
