Metallurg Magnitogorsk - Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg predictions and free betting tips [15/04/2024]

Play-off of the Continental Hockey League. Gagarin Cup 2024. Semi-final. The series score stands at 3-3. Seventh match in this series. It's only the second seventh match in this play-off, and the first, so to speak, for purely Eastern teams. However, the seventh match is always the highlight of the play-offs, offering an almost 50/50 chance. Metallurg from Magnitogorsk will host Avtomobilist from Yekaterinburg.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk

Andrey Razin finds himself in an interesting situation. For the first time in his career, he won at least a play-off series in the KHL. Here, he is in a semi-final, playing the seventh match. Naturally, the Metallurg coach has never had any experience of winning these seventh matches, but now he has his first opportunity to win a seventh match. Even more so considering that this is the first time Andrey Razin is playing the seventh match at home, so everything should be in favour of his team.

However, the emotional state after the sixth match, where they had to substitute the goalie for the first time in the play-off and the sixth match actually turned out to be the worst for Metallurg in this play-off, at some point even losing 1:5 in the score. Although they managed to slightly improve the situation to 3:5, that was their limit and they come to the seventh match after a sorry defeat.  

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

In contrast to the team from Yekaterinburg, the main question is who will be Avtomobilist's number one for the seventh match. There are rumours that Evgeniy Alikin is injured, so if he is not 100% fit, maybe taking a risk isn't the best idea and Vladimir Galkin, who already won a series against SKA and won the sixth match of this series, should get the chance. However, there is a fear that at a crucial moment, in such an important match, Galkin might crack.

Avtomobilist played a really good first half of the sixth match, and then decided to play a bit safer near their net and managed to keep the winning score. After this, it will be very interesting to see how the team from Yekaterinburg will play in the seventh match, considering they have been playing a catch-up game in this series so far. 

Head-to-Head Meetings

Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg have played 79 matches against each other. Magnitogorsk's team has 49 victories, while the club from Yekaterinburg has won 30 matches. In this regular season Metallurg won three times – 4:2, 4:0, and 2:1 in the shoot-out. Avtomobilist won one match – 3:2 in overtime. In the first match of this series, Metallurg won – 2:1. In the second match, Yekaterinburg won – 4:2. In the third overtime match, Magnitogorsk's team won – 3:2. The fourth match of the series was won by Avtomobilist – 5:3. The fifth match went to Magnitogorsk – 5:2. In the sixth match, the team from Yekaterinburg was stronger – 5:3.   

Prediction

I'm rather inclined to think that Avtomobilist will win, but here everything is really very close with chances being almost 50/50. 

Total Prediction

So, my suggestion here is to take the over (5.5) option at 2.27. The teams have broken this total three times in this series, so we're looking for a fourth.