Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg - Metallurg Magnitogorsk predictions and free betting tips [17/10/2023]

Continental Hockey League regular tournament 2023/2024. The Tuesday matchday brings only two games, both taking place in the Ural region. The first one is none other than the Ural derby, featuring Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

This season, Avtomobilist is producing inconsistent results. Although currently third in the league table, they even led the Eastern tournament table at one point. Indeed, looking closer reveals four wins in five matches for Avtomobilist, a remarkable performance for the team. However, all these victories came with considerable struggles; only one win was by a margin of more than two goals. Currently, Zavarukhin's squad has 26 points from 19 matches. The team's results are obtained in a curious way – only eight victories during regular time, four beyond it and additionally two points gained from losses with a single point. So far, Avtomobilist has only five defeats with no points. Avtomobilist boasts the least conceded goals in the East, merely 33. Despite this, they rank fourth in terms of scored goals, sharing this position with Barys.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk

The Eastern Conference leader, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, showed signs of struggle and decline at some point, but they're back on track with two consecutive wins and have returned to the top of the table. Despite having more points dropped compared to Ak Bars, the latter still needs to gain these lost points. So for now, Metallurg leads with 29 points after 20 matches. They gained these points from ten regular time victories, three from overtimes and three more from single-point losses, and only four defeats resulted in no points, which is the least in the East, along with Ak Bars. Metallurg is the highest-scoring team in the East, netting an impressive 63 goals, but they've also conceded a lot - 54 goals. Still, as they outscore all others, they achieve their standings. Most importantly, Metallurg is the most offensive team in the East that tends to play defensively, unlike the Western conference.

Head-to-Head

Avtomobilist and Metallurg have faced each other 72 times, with Magnitka leading the series with 45 victories, while Avtomobilist has only 27 wins. This season, Avtomobilist has one victory, and Metallurg has two — each team winning their respective home games.

Prediction

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg is a slight favourite for this match, with Pinnacle betting odds equal to 1.87. In contrast, Metallurg Magnitogorsk's odds are 1.99. Personally, I'd risk taking Metallurg's victory as they seem to be in better shape right now.