Red Star Kunlun vs AK Bars Kazan Prediction 2 February 2025

🔊 Are the “dragons” ready to perform a miracle? Kunlun continues to fight for a spot in the Western playoff eight, but its efforts can hardly be considered effective. Recently, the club has been losing points more often than gaining them. Ak Bars, on the other hand, is confidently progressing through the regular season and rarely makes mistakes. At first glance, the favorite in the upcoming matchup is quite obvious.

📊 Head-to-Head

In the current regular season, the opponents have met once. In mid-November, the “bars” had no trouble on their home ice in Kazan and secured a convincing victory with a score of 5:0. The most effective player was Ak Bars forward Denis Komkov, who managed to score twice. The hockey player rarely makes it into the lineup and appeared on the ice only once in the last six matches.

🔴 Kunlun

The Chinese club is still in close proximity to the playoff zone but cannot make the decisive push into the Western playoff eight. In the last six matches, Leonid Kravets' team managed to defeat only Vityaz (2:1) and Traktor (4:3 OT). In other cases, the club was left without points. Playing at this pace makes it quite difficult to count on making it to the Gagarin Cup playoffs. The team's defense looks particularly disheartening. Only Sochi (162) has conceded more goals than Kunlun (160) in the West. This is a verdict to all hopes of success.

🟢 Ak Bars

Anvar Gatiyatulin's team maintains its high level consistently. In the last eight meetings, the club suffered only two defeats, against Amur in Khabarovsk (4:5) and Sibir (0:1). The “bars” make a strong impression, and rare setbacks do not throw them off course. Right now, the club occupies fourth place in the East but has three games in hand compared to the leading Traktor, so it is quite capable of closing this gap. However, in the near future, the team faces a challenging series of matches against SKA, Avtomobilist, Torpedo, and Salavat Yulaev. Only after its completion can we talk about the further prospects of the visitors.

🔗 Probable Lineups

Kunlun: Smith - Clendening, Lefebvre - Drozg, Graovac, Halbgewachs

Ak Bars: Bilyalov - Lyamkin, Marchenko - Terekhov, Semyonov, Yashkin

🥅 Goalkeepers

Kunlun's goalkeeper Jeremy Smith plays extremely inconsistently. The goalie alternates between outstandingly effective performances and outright failures. For instance, he effectively held off numerous attacks from Spartak (93.1%) but failed under pressure from Sochi players (80%). The American has taken Chinese citizenship, but this fact has not affected his level of play.

Ak Bars' goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov is having one of his best stretches this season. The Kazan hockey product maintained an elite save percentage of 95% in his last four games. The sole defeat against Sibir (96.4%) was not his fault.

📝 Editor's Prediction

The current form of the teams, their standings, and head-to-head results leave us with little choice for a bet. The advantage of Kazan is absolutely undeniable. Only a miracle and another performance by Jeremy Smith can save the “dragons” from inevitable defeat, but it is hard to believe in that. The “bars” are just a few steps away from the top spot in the Eastern Conference and cannot afford to lose points on the verge of serious challenges. Our key bet is Ak Bars to win in regular time.