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The Bears not to underestimate their opponent

Medvescak will try to play against Avtomobilist the same way they played against SKA and Barys. It is obvious that they have learned they lesson about underestimating their opponents

This week Medvescak won their third consecutive match in KHL. In front of their own crowd they defeated Barys, current leader of the Eastern Conference and team with best attack in the league. That was a great game to watch and probably the best performance from the Bears so far.

They were really disciplined and gave their opponents only three chances to score from power play. That was probably the key factor of the match as it is well-known that Barys turns most of their power plays into goals. They had successfully defended all three Barys's power plays and in the meantime they managed to score two goals from seven power plays of their own. They scored one goal in each period and the crucial moment of the match happened early in the third period when they had two-man advantage on the ice and they managed to score a goal for 3-1. Although Barys did score another goal and tried to take the game to overtime, Medvescak's defense was solid and their goalie Brust also helped a lot with 94% shots on his goals saved (33/35).

Medvescak is looking better with every match, their teamwork is constantly improving and special units are getting better in doing their job. With three consecutive victories they are now 7th team of the Western Conference and in their next match they have a big chance to improve their position. Their power play is now at solid 22% while the boxplay percentage is also very good (84%). Main goal for them is to maintain this level of performances as long as possible:

- It was very important for us that we scored with two-man advantage on the ice because last couple of times we failed to do so. We knew what to expect from Barys and our defense was very good. We are constantly improving our penalty killing percentage and we didn't even made any rotations in the team since the opening matches. We just needed time to get to know each other and to improve our teamwork - Medvescak's coach Mark French said.

Kyle Klubertanz is the only injured player for Medvescak and all other players are available to their coach. Avtomobilist is somewhat easier opponent than the ones they faced in last three rounds:

- We must approach every new match in the same way, regardless how many wins or losses we had so far. We need to play every match the way we did against top teams in the conference like Barys or SKA. I know we have the tendency to play better against tougher opponents and to underestimate the weaker ones, although it is stupid to call any team in the KHL ''weak''. But, I think we learned our lesson and we won't underestimate Avtomobilist. Mental approach to the game will be crucial - forward Luke Walker said.

Defenseman Hannu Pikkarainen will have his debut in the Medvescak jersey in the match against Avtomobilist.

Although they are a weaker team than Medvescak, no one should really underestimate their power. As one of the youngest teams in the conference they managed to win against Spartak in Moscow! Solid defense is their main strength, and their greatest weakness is their attack. They conceded less goals than Medvescak in average, but they only scored 1,78 per game so far.

In the last round they lost to Dinamo and they failed to score a single goal. They had only 23 shots on goal, and created just a few real chances. Their opponents had 13 more shots on goal but Avtomobilist's goalie Jakub Kovar saved them on couple of occasions. He is probably the best there is in Avtomobilist right now. Against Dinamo he saved 94,4% shots on his goal.

- They were a better team in all aspects of the game. We failed to score a single goal, and there is no way you can win matches without scoring goals - coach Anatoliy Yemelin said.

Avtomobilist manages to turn only 5,7% of their powerplays into goals but they have second-best penalty killing percentage in the conference - 94,7%. Overall, their goalie is very good as is their defense but they are struggling in the attack.

They should look to defend their own goal in Zagreb and try to hit Medvescak with counterattacks. They are a very compact team without a big star in the lineup. That also means that they don't have players capable of winning matches all by themselves...

Three great home games by Medvescak give us an ideal opportunity to play on the Bears, as they host an obviously weaker opponent. Medvescak have beaten the great SKA and Barys at home, and also Ugra in the meantime, a team that can be classified as equal or slightly better than Avtomobilist. Medvescak's play in these three games was impressive, with all segments of the play improving. They limited the mighty Barys offense to only two goals, partly with a very good defense, partly with the great Brust in net, so the odds of 1.90 present a good value. The visitors are coming after a loss in Minsk to another rather poor team, so it's obvious they're not very comfortable at the away games in the Western Conference. The word from Medvescak is that they're not going to underestimate their opponents, they've learned their lessons, and we believe it to be true. No team has the fan support like the Bears, the team atmosphere is at its highest at the moment, the form is great, the opponent is not too strong, the odds are still good and the time is right to play on Medvescak to win.