SKA St. Petersburg is the clear favorite for a spot in the Gagarin Cup final when it meets Dynamo Moscow in the first match of their KHL Western Conference final Wednesday, bookmakers say.
Dynamo is priced as high as three to one to win the best-of-seven series.
In the regular season, SKA recorded dominant 5-1 and 4-1 victories, although the Moscow team grabbed 2-1 and 4-3 wins in shootouts.
The regular season record shows SKA’s superiority, the St. Petersburg team’s coach Milos Riha has said.
“In the regular season SKA was better, gained two great victories and only lost in a shootout,” he said Monday.
SKA had a strategy to exploit Dynamo’s weaknesses, he suggested.
“Dynamo is a disciplined team, they fight, every player plays for the win. I won’t tell you what I don’t like about the blue-and-whites’ game. It’s a secret but I think we’ll work with it.”
SKA may struggle to cope with Dynamo forward Mikhail Anisin, the son of 1972 Summit Series star Vyacheslav Anisin, because he is unusually short, making opponents reluctant to check him, SKA wing Igor Makarov said.
“It’s very difficult especially for our taller defensemen,” he told local newspaper Nevskoe Vremya.
“You want to check him on the shoulder, but Anisin’s head is actually at that height, so and it turns out that’s against the rules.”
SKA hosts the first two games of the series Wednesday and Friday, before the action moves to Moscow for games Sunday and Tuesday.
In the Eastern Conference final, regular season champion Traktor Chelyabinsk takes on Avangard Omsk in the series opener Thursday.
