Sibir Novosibirsk vs CSKA Prediction 19 January 2025

🔊 Does Sibir still have the strength after extremely tough previous matches? For four games in a row, the "snowmen" have been taking the game to overtime. This inevitably affects the physical condition of the players. The head-to-head between the "Siberians" and the "Army men" will take place at the "Sibir-Arena" this coming Sunday. Let's look at the bookmakers' preliminary predictions: home team victory - 3.2, away team victory - 2.05.

📊 H2H

At the very start of the regular season, Sibir visited CSKA. At that time, Ilya Vorobyov's team left no trace of the "snowmen" (8:2). The main hero of the past meeting was Vitaly Abramov, who scored three goals and made an assist. The winning streak of the "Army men" in head-to-heads with the "Siberians" has reached 4 matches.

❄️ SIBIR

Sibir continues to use its main weapon - effectiveness in power play. In a recent matchup with Lokomotiv (2:3 after shootouts), both pucks by the "Siberians" were scored during power plays. Currently, the success rate is as high as 27.9%. The desire for quick puck movement and aggressive pressing are the basis of Vadim Epanchintsev's tactical style. It's worth noting the excellent form of Taylor Beck and Trevor Murphy. The Canadian players have scored points in 4 consecutive previous games.

🔴 CSKA

The "Army men" celebrated success only once in the new calendar year - in a matchup with Spartak (4:2). The last match is one that Ilya Vorobyov's squad surely wants to forget quickly. The "red-blues" failed to provide adequate competition to Omsk Avangard (0:4) under Guy Boucher's leadership. Overall, it's easy to see that CSKA's coach's ideas have stopped working in recent matches. The Moscow team is unable to deprive their opponents of space on the ice and effectively play in penalty killing. Now, the capital club has dropped to 4th position in the "West".

🔗 PROBABLE LINEUPS

Sibir: Krasotkin - Alanov, Murphy - Leipsic, Endroff, Beck

CSKA: Prosvetov - Yarosh, Claesson - Mamin, Kamenev, Fateev

🥅 GOALIES

Anton Krasotkin has lost his status as Sibir's main goalie this season. It's also noticeable that the 27-year-old goalie's efficiency has significantly dropped (90.34% saves, GAA - 3.04, no shutouts).

Ivan Prosvetov remains a key figure for Moscow CSKA this season. The former Arizona and Colorado goalie has participated in 35 matches this regular season. During this period, the 25-year-old Russian shows quite convincing figures (92.18% saves, GAA - 2.26, 4 shutouts).

📝 MATCH PREDICTION

It will be extremely interesting to see if Ilya Vorobyov makes any tactical adjustments. It's obvious that the "Army men" have been read like an open book in recent matches. The "red-blues'" power play actions also look terrible. Based on this, we wouldn't write off the "snowmen" and rate them as underdogs in this matchup. Our key choice is Sibir's victory with a handicap (+1).