Sibir Novosibirsk - Ak Bars Kazan predictions and free betting tips [30/01/2024]

Continental Hockey League regular championship 2023/2024. The opening match of the game day and a clash between a team determined to cling onto the playoff zone versus a team striving to make it to the top-4 of the conference. Sibir from Novosibirsk will host Ak Bars from Kazan.

Sibir Novosibirsk

Currently, there's not one idea as to why Sibir could make it to the playoffs. The recent matches of the Novosibirsk club look dire indeed — yes, they pulled a win against Vityaz, but that's the team at the bottom of the Western Conference, if not the whole league. Indeed, this win did not serve as a show of strength for the Novosibirsk team. Sibir only has one victory in their last five matches, over Vityaz, the last place team of the West. At this moment, Sibir is in tenth place in the conference, having earned 53 points after 57 matches.

These points Sibir gained are as a result of 17 wins in regular time, five overtimes and a further nine defeats with a solitary point. The remaining 26 matches Sibir lost without any bonus points. Sibir is third from the bottom in terms of goals scored – 124. The situation with received goals is slightly better, specifically fourth from the bottom, along with Amur – 154 goals.

Ak Bars Kazan

As much as Sibir's recent matches have been disappointing, Ak Bars on the other hand deserves praise. After a slump at the end of 2023, they have started 2024 excellently. Yes, there were defeats to Avangard and Traktor, but mostly Ak Bars is victorious. In the last five games, Ak Bars has enjoyed four wins and suffered only one defeat, against Avangard. It's worth noting that Ak Bars did the most important thing after somewhat uncertain games in the beginning of January: they finally began to score enough.

Currently, Ak Bars is in seventh place in the standings, having collected 68 points after 56 matches. These points Ak Bars earned are due to 25 wins in regular time, eight overtimes and a further two losses in overtime. The remaining matches, exactly 21 of them, Ak Bars lost without any bonus points. Ak Bars is the best team in the East concerning goals allowed – 121. However, the situation is much worse for goals scored – they rank fifth, a position they share with Lada – 144 goals.

Head-to-head matches

Sibir and Ak Bars have faced each other 46 times. In these matches, Sibir has claimed 20 victories while Ak Bars has won 26 encounters. This season, both matches have been won by Sibir – 3:2 in overtime and 4:2 in regulation time.

Prediction

IIn this case, we’re selecting the victory of Ak Bars, as such favourable odds in such an apparent match are not so frequent.

Total Prediction

If you don’t want to gamble, you could opt for ITU2 (2.5) at 2.12. Sibir has had difficulties with their defence lately, only in the match against Vityaz did they allow less than three goals. Thus, it is quite probable that Ak Bars could score as much.