Ak Bars to play first match in KHL championship

Ak Bars of Kazan will today for the first time play in the KHL – Russia hockey championship’s new season. The game with Severstal of Cherepovets will begin at 19:00 at Tatneft Arena.

The referees are Andrei Rogachev, Roman Schenev, Eduard Metalnikov and Alexander Sirotkin.

Ak Bars and Severstal have within national championships met 106 times, the Kazan team winning 61 times, drawing 9 ties and losing 36 times.

Several last year performed, as a year earlier, very confidently in the regular tournament, ranking fifth in the Western Conference. They lacked 6 points, to outperform Torpedo of Nizhny Novgorod and take the lead in the Tarasov Division.

The Gagarin Cup worked for Severstal the way it did a year earlier as well. The best shooter was Vadim Shipachev, scoring 62 points within a ‘goal+pass’ system.

The club from Cherepovets was widely represented at the recent world championship, forward Evgeny Ketov becoming a world champion within the Russian national team. Defenceman Staffan Kronwall played on the Swedish team, defenceman Nikolai Stasenko and forward Evgeny Kovyrshin did so for the Belarus team.

The spectators will tonight be offered a show before the match. The beginning is at 17:00.