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Goalkeeper problems weakened already battered Novokuzneck

Home team lost 13 consecutive matches. In the last match their first-pick goalkeeper Hovinen had a concussion, leaving them without a decent replacement.

Novokuzneck have a streak of bad luck. The team with the smallest budget in the KHL lost their fourth match on their road tour. Now they lost 13 consecutive matches and are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and the whole League with only 9 points. They have the weakest offense in KHL and second worst defense in the East.

In their last match against Severstal they even took the lead, but in the next 30 seconds of the first period they concede two goals and another two at the beginning of the second period. They were very active going forward, making 42 shots on goal (23 in the second period alone), but didn't manage to score.

- Our biggest problem was injured goalkeeper Niko Hovinen. We had to replace him with a young goalie, then we conceded two quick goals and lost all our confidence - said coach German Titov. He still didn't win a single match with this team.

Hovinen played only four minutes and then had to be replaced due to the concussion. This means Novokuzneck is without their goalkeeper for at least three weeks. This came as a big shock to the home team as Hovinen so far had a 92.4% saves and was a start player for the club.

Due to Hovinen's injury, Novokuzneck will start with either Nikita Lozhkin (average 4.44 goals per game conceded, 87.5% save percentage) or Ilya Sorokin (even worse stats: 5.16 gpg, 87.2% saves). Both of them are young, unexperienced goalies who are still finding their feet in the KHL. Sorokin has conceded 5 goals out of 25 shots with 80% saves after replacing Hovinen in the last match.

Besides the problems with goalies, Novokuzneck are struggling with penalty killing - they are second worst in the league with only 73.8% penalties defended.

That stat is all that more important because their opponents, Barys, are third best in the league on powerplay with 26.1% scoring rate. The Kazakhstan club are currently sitting second in the Eastern Conference, leading the scoring table with 66 goals and have bounced back after being trounced by the Conference leaders, Kazan.

It was, obviously, just a bad day, as they have showed their attacking prowess again against a decent Torpedo team on Sunday. They had more than 30 shots on goal, a lot of good scoring chances and scored four times. The return to form of their star forwards, Dustin Boyd and Brandon Bochenski, after a streak of a couple of poor matches might even be more valuable than three points won.

- We played a lot of matches, my players were visibly tired, so we played somewhat slower against Torpedo. It was good to have a couple of days between matches to regain fitness - head coach Ari-Pekka Selin said.

Their goalie Vitaly Yeremeyev played particularly well (94.4% saves), and he should be at the same level against Novokuzneck as well.

Barys have played five away matches so far, losing only one (to Medvescak) and scoring over four goals on average.

Novokuzneck are in a series of 13 consecutive defeats and it is hard to find a single reason why that run should not continue. They have the weakest offense in the league and score only 1.67 goals per game and they have one of the worst defenses in the Eastern conference.Today they will be additionally weakened. They lost their beast player, goalie Nika Hovinen, due to concussion and they can thank him for those few points they have won. So far he has had a 92.4% save efficiency. That is why against the Barys they will start with either Nikita Loszkin (4.44 goals against per game and 87.5 save efficiency) or Illya Sorokin (5.16 goals against per game and 87.2% save efficiency). These are two young and inexperienced goalies with a very few games in KHL. Sorokin played their last game after Hovinen got injured and in 25 shots he faced he conceded 5 goals and had only 80% save efficiency. The visiting team have by far the best offense in the Eastern conference and they score over 4 goals per game. They are at the very top of the conference and so far they lost on the road only in Zagreb. Their style of play does not suit the home team, they are a better team in all departments and are especially better now when the home team has goalie problems.