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Severstal having major injury problems

Whereas the visitors are struggling with injuries, Torpedo have three consecutive wins. They have their excellent goalies and tough defence to thank

It seems that switching from Western to Eastern Conference did good for Torpedo. The Nizhny Novgorod team connected three wins in a row. Following excellent defensive displays against CSKA and Dinamo Riga, they completely outplayed Lokomotiv in their first home match after an away tour. They practically resolved the game in 50 seconds halfway through the first period. They scored twice in that interval, and later added three more. 

They allowed Lokomotiv only 20 shots on goal and few real chances. Goalie Georgy Gelashvili got a shutout, and his good form continues. That was the third match this season in which Torpedo goalies didn't let a single shot through.

- The guys played strictly according to the agreement for the whole 60 minutes. They played very good defence. We knew we would have problems if we played with half power. I can only congratulate them - coach Peteris Skudra was visibly satisfied.

How can he not be when his team are sharing the third position in the conference, and prior to the season start, it was predicted they would have a hard life in the East. Considering they have serious penalty killing problems, that could be Torpedo's chance. Namely, the home team are the second most successful powerplay team. They used 33,3% of their powerplays. In the last round against Lokomotiv they used 4 out of 8 powerplays. Besides that, their defence seems well-sorted. The average number of 1.56 conceded goals per match reveals that fact.

Severstal enterred a losing streak in the last three matches after a respectable season start. They had three losses, two home and the last one at the first match of their visiting tour. Their play is primarily full of oscillations so no one can know what to expect from them, and they put up a good fight to Kazan.

Kazan were expected to thrash them, but Severstal showed what they were made of and even had more shots than their hosts (25-24). Even though they are missing two important defenders, they played very good defence and conceded only once. On the other hand, their attacks were totally passive. They did not take any of their chances, and they didn't use five powerplays either. Their only concessions came with one player down five minutes before the end of the first period. 

They are still in a comfortable position, they are not far from the playoff zone, but their game is not brilliant. This is actually a brand new team, collected over the summer since all key players from last season, including the coach, left Severstal. Their biggest problem so far is penalty kill mode (75%), which cost them the defeat in the last match. 

- We played well, but we lacked more quality finishing. The goalie and defence kept us alive, but the attack underperformed. That is no wonder since we have a lot of injured players, which is holding us back - said Severstal coach, Igor Petrov.

Petrov is right as Severstal are experiencing true hospital conditions; five very important players are missing, which doesn't allow them to play to their best. That will be a major problem in the match against Torpedo as well. Furthermore, they haven't won their last three head-to-head matches and they hardly have a chance when they are so struck by injury. 

Toronto entered the right form and reached three victories in a row against the very strong teams from the Eastern Conference. They have four victories from the last five games, and suffered a defeat in the away game against Lev. They are a quite powerful team, especially in defense, and they showed their attacking strength by scoring five goals against Lokomotiv in the last round. And this is the team stronger than such guests. Severstal, on the other side, is not brilliant. This is the team assembled this summer because at the end of the last season all important players left. Therefore, this season their potential is much more modest. They have three defeats in a row, and six in the last eight games. These two victories were reached at home against the weak Minsk and then impressioned Medvescak. Bad results are not the most important reason for this bet, as Severstal's roster is comprised of injured players. There are missing 5 important players, two out of four top defenders, and this is an enormous handicap manifested in the results, too. Torpedo is a huge favorite at home, the difference in quality, even if Severstal were complete, would have still been great, and this is an excellent bet. Severstal has not won here for the last three seasons. In the last two games they were destroyed despite the better line-up than today - hence this bet has to be taken.