Severstal Cherepovec vs Torpedo Prediction
🔊 Severstal face the risk of becoming the first club in the tournament to be eliminated by a lower-seeded team. The "Steelworkers" headed to Nizhny Novgorod with the intention of winning the remaining matches. This goal remains, but the Cherepovets club no longer has room for error. How will the fifth game of the first-round series in the 2026 Gagarin Cup conclude? Let's break it down in our editorial's prediction.
Head-to-Head
📊 Over the past three seasons, Severstal and Torpedo have faced off 16 times: the Cherepovets club claimed victory in nine matches, while the Nizhny Novgorod side won seven. In the current series in Cherepovets, the teams exchanged commanding victories-Torpedo triumphed 4-1, and Severstal responded with a 4-0 win. In Nizhny Novgorod, both games went to the hosts (3-1 and 3-2 OT). The last game was particularly dramatic, with Severstal squandering a two-goal lead just a minute and a half before the final whistle.
H2H Stats Matches and Previous Teams Results
Severstal Cherepovec Team Overview
The "Steelworkers," averaging 2.00 goals, don't make it into the top 10 most prolific clubs in the Gagarin Cup. Severstal are struggling with their conversion rate, sitting at 5.10%-the second-worst among tournament teams. On average, the team from Cherepovets concedes 2.50 goals per game, ranking 12th in the playoffs.
Severstal are among the top three teams for power play time, yet their conversion rate of 23.1% is only eighth among all Gagarin Cup teams. Under Andrei Kozyrev, they have been scored on just once while shorthanded, successfully neutralizing 87.5% of their opponents' power play attempts.
Match Results: Severstal Cherepovec
Torpedo N. Novgorod Team Overview
With an average of 2.25 goals per game, Torpedo rank among the top eight most prolific teams in the current playoffs. Their conversion rate of 8.93% stands as the fifth-best among all Gagarin Cup teams. The first period is their standout segment, where they have not conceded a single goal.
Torpedo's power play ranks only 12th, with a 12.5% success rate, scoring just once in eight attempts. In penalty killing, only one team in the tournament has conceded more than the three goals allowed by the Volga side. Alexei Isakov's squad are ninth in penalty kill efficiency, with a rate of 76.9%.
Match Results: Torpedo N. Novgorod
Latest news
Severstal Cherepovec
💬 Severstal's head coach Andrey Kozyrev: "The series is incredibly demanding, which is why we played a number of fresh players. The team is currently frustrated with the result. The series continues, and we'll play until the end. Right now, it's crucial to recover properly."
❌ Defenseman Danil Veryaev remains sidelined due to injury, having been out since the third game. His condition and readiness to return to the ice are still unknown.
↔️ After the first game in Nizhny Novgorod, Andrey Kozyrev left defenseman Grigory Vaschenko and forwards Ilya Kvochko, Ilya Chefanov, and Kirill Tankov out of the squad. They were replaced by Nikita Kamalov, Ivan Okunev, Ilya Reinhardt, Vladislav Tsitsyura, and Nikolai Chebykin.
Torpedo N. Novgorod
💬 Torpedo head coach Alexey Isakov: "The lack of goals in the first 50 minutes and then scoring four in the last 10 minutes is something I attribute to the fact that hockey is one of the fastest and most dynamic games in the world. Everything can change in just a minute or two."
❌ Torpedo have no players on the injury list.
↔️ Alexey Kruchinin missed his second consecutive game. While he was out for the third game of the series due to suspension, his absence from the lineup in the fourth game was entirely a coaching decision. In the previous match, Timur Mukhanov was left out of the squad, replaced by Egor Sokolov.
⚡️ Leaders
The top scorers for Severstal are Mikhail Ilyin, who has three points from four games (3 goals, 0 assists), and Alexander Skorenov, who also has three points (0 goals, 3 assists). The Belarusian forward was instrumental in the first three matches of the series with his assists, but went silent in the last game.
For Torpedo, Vladislav Firstov has surged ahead in the scoring race with 1 goal and 3 assists. Including regular season games, the forward has been impactful in 4 of the last 5 matches. Sergei Goncharuk (1 goal, 2 assists) and Maxim Letunov (0 goals, 3 assists) hold the second and third spots in the scoring leaderboard.
🥅 Goalies
Despite three losses, Severstal's goaltender Alexander Samoylov showcases solid stats. With a save percentage of 92.7% and a goals-against average of 1.88, he ranks among the top ten most efficient goalies in the playoffs.
Denis Kostin's save percentage is significantly higher at 94.9%, and he leads in total saves with 149 in the tournament. His goals-against average is nearly identical to Samoylov's at 1.87.
Editorial Prediction
Severstal's exit might not be a major shock, but bowing out in five games certainly would be. Over the past nine years in the West, a higher-seeded team has never lost a first-round series in four or five games. The last time such an upset occurred was in 2016 when the third-seeded Lokomotiv fell to the sixth-seeded SKA (1-4). Considering Nizhny Novgorod have lost six out of eight away games, betting on Severstal to win the match (including overtime) seems like the optimal choice for the upcoming game.
Betting Tips: Severstal Cherepovec - Torpedo N. Novgorod
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