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Medvescak's first away game in the KHL is at the league's strongest team

SKA have played their first four games away, winning all four of them by at least two goals, with a goal difference of 21-8. They create chances easily and their play is fantastic, which is no surprise considering their roster.

The biggest title favorites, SKA have completed the series of four away games at the start of the season, and today they open at home against Medvescak, rookies in the league. They're coming back home with four convincing wins in four games and a goal difference of 21-8, which sounds almost incredible.

It may be incredible, but what could be expected from the team that would be competitive even in the NHL, with a roster full of stars like Ilya Kovalchuk, Roman Cervenka or the best goalie in Europe, Alexander Salak. On top of them, SKA have a fantastic team with a number of Russian national team players, finest young talents like Shipachyov and Ketov and an experienced NHL-er Ponikarovsky, all together creating an outstanding outfit.

It looks as if they create chances effortlessly. Statistically a game may seem even in shots on goal, but SKA almost always create a lot more of the real scoring opportunities since they possess more individual quality. The offense is simply demolishing the opponents, so they scored five goals against a very good Barys team in the last game, with Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the world's top players, making his contribution with a goal and an assist.

Barys had their chances, but Salak had a good day in SKA's goal, stopping 34 of 36 shots for a great 94% of saves, while the offense did their thing as expected. A decent Barys defense could not stop the fantastic SKA offense, who scored three of their goals on powerplay, which turns out to be their main strength. The match was very physical and SKA had to defend ten extra-man situations, but succeeded in killing nine of them, which is some achievement against a strong Barys offense.

-  We are playing great as a team and we've started the season well. In spite of that there are still some things to work on and to improve. Our coach demands that we play the whole game with the same tempo and this is something we must strive to do. - said the SKA forward Alexei Ponikarovsky.

The league rookies Medvescak have their baptism of fire in Russia. This will be their first away game in the KHL and, on top of that, they visit the most difficult opponent. Also, they're going away with three home losses in a row, which isn't encouraging. 

After thrashing CSKA in the season opener, which turned out not to be a realistic indication for future games, Dinamo Riga and Lev punished their every mistake in the following matches. Medvescak had some bad defensive reactions, and in the KHL this is strictly punished, so convincing defeats came as a result. They were a little better against Slovan, leading 3-1, but in the most important, final moments they didn't show character, so Slovan came back from behind and won in overtime.

The Bears are great in special situations, they're among the leaders in powerplay (31%) and penalty killing (94%) rankings, but it's obvious this doesn't guarantee success.

- We didn't achieve what we wanted in the last three games, but fan support meant a lot to us, we saw how much they love hockey and stick with us. Against SKA we must be wise on defense, we must eliminate their chances and play in the opponents' zone as much as possible, with a number of shots on goal. - said the experienced defenseman Kurtis Foster, who also mentioned that most of the players had never played in Russia, so that would be a new experience for them.

Medvescak is without defenseman Klubertanz as usual, Carle, another defender, will probably also miss the game, but these are absences they are used to. This game can be used for collecting major experience, since an away win against such an opponent will be very hard to achieve.

In three out of four away matches this season SKA won with the advantage of three or more goals. This success is even bigger when we look at the teams they won against - especially Omsk and Barys, tough opponents for everyone. With that in mind, we can expect that The Bears could have very difficult match against them. SKA is creating goal chances with such an ease and this is pretty much expected from the best teams in the KHL with some of the true legends of the sport in their squad. Kovalchuk scored for them in last two matches and his form is clearly improving. Cervenka is playing exceptionally but they have whole bunch of other great players too. Key factor for them is definitely the flawless defence and goalkeeper Salak is also looking great. They scored only once in the away match against Barys but they have successfully defended nine out of ten penalties. This is the first away match for The Bears in KHL and for a lot of their players this will be the first match in Russia. I can see them having a lot of trouble against SKA.

Except in the first match, The Bears have shown very little this season. They suffered convincing losses to Riga and Lev, and against Slovan they failed to win despite having two-goals advantage. They made a lot of mistakes in the defense, and their opponents knew how to make them pay for that mistakes. We can definitely expect that SKA's skillful players will know how to exploit every opportunity that is handed to them. Even if they were playing at home, I still think The Bears would be big underdogs in this match. SKA is crushing their opponents and for rather unconvincing Medvescak this is the first visit to Russia. I don't think they can salvage anything from this match. SKA should win with at least three goals advantage. They will try to keep their fans satisfied in their first match at home this season.