Torpedo vs Amur Khabarovsk Prediction

🔊 Can the Nizhny Novgorod team extend their winning streak? Torpedo continues to fight for a place in the Western Conference's playoff eight, and recently the team has managed to build a small buffer. However, they shouldn't rest on their laurels, as the task is not yet fully resolved. Amur, on the other hand, has long lost its chances of continuing the fight for the Gagarin Cup and has started doing what was expected of them - "biting" the favorites and taking points from them.

📊 Head-to-Head

The opponents have already met once in the current regular season. At the end of September, the Nizhny Novgorod team achieved a convincing victory in Khabarovsk with a score of 7:2. The decisive contribution to his team's success was made by Torpedo forward Denis Pochivalov, who managed to score a hat-trick. However, the player now plays for Traktor.

🔵 Torpedo

Igor Larionov's charges have a positive balance of results since the start of the new calendar year: 4 wins and 3 losses. The club continues to balance on the edge of the Western Conference's playoff eight, with only Chinese Kunlun posing a threat, being in close proximity. Nizhny Novgorod is characterized by a quality positional attack and somewhat weak defensive actions on their half of the rink. Nevertheless, with such characteristics, Torpedo is quite capable of holding onto the eighth spot by the end of the regular season. However, there are significant doubts about their further prospects.

🐯 Amur

The "Tigers" seem to have decided to don the mask of Robin Hood and have started taking points from top clubs, giving them to less experienced opponents. For instance, in their last five matches, Viktor Kostyuchenko's team suffered heavy defeats to Kunlun (0:5) and Sochi (2:5), and then defeated Ak Bars (5:4) and Metallurg (3:2 SO). At the same time, the team has long had no tournament goals, and it will not be able to escape from the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. However, there is no doubt that the visitors will continue to try to challenge the strongest teams in both conferences.

📌 Probable Lineups

Torpedo: Kulbakov - Konyushkov, Thompson - Chefanov, Letunov, Atanasov

Amur: Jurusik - Lee, Mishchenko - Galchenyuk, Broadhurst, Barulin

🥅 Goalkeepers

Torpedo goalkeeper Ivan Kulbakov showcased all his talents in the last two matches. The Belarusian first held off the attack from Tolyatti's Lada (91.7%), and then withstood the pressure from one of the Western Conference leaders, Spartak Moscow (95.8%). It is thanks to their goalkeeper's efforts that Nizhny Novgorod managed to secure points.

Amur's goalkeeper Matthew Jurusik did the impossible. The Khabarovsk netminder demonstrated outstanding play twice in a row and managed to bring his team victories in matches against Ak Bars and Metallurg. Credit must be given to the American - in most games played, he looks very solid and, unlike his teammates, consistently puts in a lot of effort for overall success.

📝 Editorial Prediction

A significant portion of Khabarovsk's matches are quite high-scoring. It doesn't matter where the Khabarovsk club plays its games; their play on any arena is accompanied by an impressive number of goals scored. In 14 out of their last 15 matches, the "Tigers" have seen at least four pucks scored. The same trend is true for head-to-head matchups; in 6 out of their last 7 encounters, opponents have also surpassed four goals. In our opinion, both trends will remain relevant. Our key bet is total over 4.5 pucks.