HC Dinamo Minsk - SKA Saint Petersburg predictions and free betting tips [23/02/2024]

Continental Hockey League regular championship 2023/2024. The final match of the game day and possibly a rehearsal of the first round of this year's Gagarin Cup playoffs and a remake of the last two rounds of past Gagarin Cups. "Dynamo" in Minsk will play against SKA from Saint Petersburg.

Dynamo Minsk

The team managed by Dmitry Kvartalnov was the first in the league to secure its place at the end of the regular championship, they had already clinched eighth place in the West before the last match and were just waiting to see who would take the top spot in the conference and play against them in the first round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs. Interestingly, despite the fact that Dynamo doesn't essentially need anything from this regular season, they still manage to win and, for example, leave Neftekhimik without a playoff.

At the moment, the Minsk team is in eighth place in the conference, after 66 matches Dynamo amassed 67 points. These points were earned due to 25 victories in normal time, six beyond it and five defeats with one point scored. The remaining 30 matches Dynamo lost without gaining additional points. Minsk is ranked fifth from the bottom with 175 goals scored. As for the goals against, Dynamo is in the sixth position in the conference with 171 goals.

SKA Saint Petersburg  

The club from Saint Petersburg was comfortably leading the conference and it seemed that nothing could stop them from winning the West, and with it the Continental Cup. But then Severstal appeared and inflicted the first defeat on the army club at their new arena. After that, SKA lost the top spot in the conference and now in order to reclaim it, they have to wait for a slip-up from Dynamo, but not the one from Minsk whom they are about to play against, but the Moscow team. Such a mistake could happen in the last match of the regular season against CSKA.

So now it's crucial for SKA to earn all their points in the remaining two matches. Currently, the army club is in second place in the conference, it has achieved 93 points after 66 matches. Saint Petersburg's team gained these points due to 39 wins in normal time, six beyond it and three defeats with one point. The remaining 18 matches SKA lost without scoring additional points. Army men share the first place in the conference in numbers of goals against alongside Lokomotiv. They conceded 135 goals. As for the goals scored, SKA is second in the conference with 213 goals.

Head-to-head meetings

"Dynamo" Minsk - SKA Saint Petersburg has held 51 matches between them. In this confrontation, the Saint Petersburg club won 37 matches, while the club from Minsk won 14 matches. This season Dynamo has two victories - 4:2 and 2:1 in overtime. When SKA won with a score of 3:2.

Prediction

 Here of course, it's worth taking the victory of the army team, simply because SKA really needs this victory now, when Dynamo only makes sense to resist if they don't want to play against SKA in the first round of the playoffs.

Total Prediction

Speaking about totals, it's trickier, I would suggest taking TO (5) for 1.80, it is just an added layer of insurance in case there would be only five goals in total in the match.