Someone crashed into Lassila but no penalty.

Lassila covers the puck up against Tony Martensson and Patrick Thoresen.

It looks more like a training session by now. SKA do not do more than necessary and Avangard look desperate with the four-goal deficit.

Avangard's Nikita Mokin is hit with a stick somewhere close to his throat and leaves the match under serious pain. The hit was non-intentional though and no penalty is given.

SKA are back at full strength. Not much happening at all currently.

Frolov from short distance, stopped by Salak.

Oleg Kvasha with the helpless try against 4 opponents, loses the puck deep inside the SKA zone and almost causes a counter attack.

Perezhogin with a long cross-pass, wants to assist in a blue line shot but the puck leaves the SKA third.

The hosts are back at full strength.

After Lassila covers up the puck in front of his own net, there is a brawl between several players on each side. The atmosphere on the ice is very heated. By now also frustration plays a role. Pivtsakin had attacked Cervenka and another SKA player was checked into the Avangard goalie.

Martensson is left alone on the right wing and almost scores another one for the guests but Lassila was in between!

SKA are back at full strength. Once more Avangard failed to create enough danger.

One-two combination by the guests, the puck comes back to Kovalchuk but his backhander from short distance is blocked by Lassila.

SKA are back at full strength.

Back hand attempt from short distance by Ivanov but he isn't able to get the puck past Salak.

The guests are back at full strength.

Finally Avangard is trying to fight back! A cross pass by Alexander Frolov almost led to a goal but the following shot went wide.

With the whole guest team also super star Ilya Kovalchuk is getting better by the minute. Now a pass by him went just wide as the angle from the right corner was too sharp.

Already the next dangerous attack of the guests but it was stopped by the referees when several players crashed into the net.

Beautiful cross-pass by Kovalchuk from the right circle but his team mate deflecfted the puck wide.

Patrick Thoresen tries to get a rebound but Lassila makes the second pad save.

SKA head coach Jalonen must have found the right words for his team in the intermission. SKA play a lot more offensive now.

Tikhonov with a wrap-around attempt but a player blocks the shot and the puck is covered up by Lassila.

Ilya Kovalchuk wins the puck for SKA in the home team's zone but needed too long to surprise the opponents.

Alexander Perezhogin has the first opportunity of the second period . He tried it with a shot from the left circle towards the left bottom corner but Salak was there with a pad save!

Blue line shot by Baranka, easy save for Salak.

The guests are back at full strength.

A harmless shot from the left circle almost gave Andrei Ivanov a big opportunity due to a week block to the side by Salak.

Artemy Panarin with a fast solo attack but against two defenders he was kept chanceless inside the Avangard third. Afterwards the hosts took an icing.

The guests are having the momentum on their side currently but they need to improve a lot if they want to get the equalizer in this period.

Avangard's new goalie Lassila does a great job so far. He blocks another pass before a guest player can reach it.

SKA's Andrei Sigaryov with nice puck handling in the neutral zone, skates too early into the Avangard third before his team mates could get out of it – offside.

The hosts are back at full strength.

Harmless long distance shot by the guests, Lassila blocks the puck to the side with his stick.

After a perfectly timed pass by Kevin Dallman, the guests tried it with a one-timer from the right circle but Lassila could cover the puck up before Martensson could reach it.

With a man more on the ice SKA are finally trying it with some offense.

Nice attack by Kalinin over the right wing but his wrap-around attempt was stopped by Salak.

Again a nice combination of three Avangard forwards just in front the SKA net but they were not able to get a shot on goal. Still the guest defense shows unknown weaknesses.

2-on-4 attack by Avangard and the last cross-pass is blocked by a defender.

The guests are back at full strength.

Avangard's Frolov dumps the puck into the SKA third, almost surprises Salak who blocks the shot to the side.

Both teams play all their attacks very fast so far with the SKA defense looking a bit unstable.

Martensson with an attack over the right wing for SKA but his back hand shot is no danger for Lassila.

The atmosphere in Omsk Arena is amazing. Every time an Avangard player gets into the SKA third the fans go crazy.

Starting lineups:

Avangard Omsk: Lassila (Kostin) – Popov, Kulyash, Perezhogin, Kostitsyn, Pivtsakin – Baranka, Blatak, Tkachyov, Zaborsky, Frolov – Yegorshev, Lyamin, Kvasha, Kalinin S., Kazionov – Mokin, Pyanov, Mozer, Ivanov, Badyukov

SKA St. Petersburg: Salak (Nalimov) – Alexandrov, Martensson, Dallman, Thoresen, Cervenka – Kalinin D., Tikhonov, Kovalchuk, Kuteikin, Shipachyov – Kucheryavenko, Ketov, Semenov, Panarin, Chudinov – Makarov, Sigaryov, Yudin, Burdasov

Referees: Vyacheslav Bulanov, Konstantin Olenin – Sergei Misyur, Stanislav Raming.

As always Avangard and SKA are among the favourites to reach one of the top positions in their respective conferences. For SKA then only the title counts. Everything else would be just another big disappointment for fans and media in the city.

Both teams had some important roster changes. While Avangard lost star players like Oleg Piganovich, Anssi Salmela (both Donbass), Alexander Nesterov, Igor Volkov (both Spartak) or even worse top talents Anton Belov (Edmonton Oilers, NHL) and Karri Rämö (Calgary Flames, NHL), they were able to sign valuable substitutions like Teemu Lassila (Barys), Miroslav Blatak, Ivan Baranka (both Ufa), Denis Kulyash (Kazan) and Sergei Kostitsyn (Nashville Predators, NHL).

On the other side SKA St. Petersburg kept the heart of the team together while the richest team in KHL was able to surprise the international hockey community with top transfer of the calibre of Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexei Ponikarovsky (both New Jersey Devils, NHL) along with former Avangard forward Roman Cervenka (Calgary Flames, NHL) and some young talents.

The match between Avangard Omsk and SKA St. Petersburg will be already a really tough test for both sides for their season opener. Last year both teams were absolutely dominating the regular season as Continental Cup winners (SKA St. Petersburg) and as 2nd in Eastern Conference (Avangard Omsk).

In the playoffs though both disappointed. Avangard had a lot of trouble against clear outsiders Sibir Novosibirsk (4-3) before they were thrown out in the second round by later Gagarin Cup finalists Traktor Chelyabinsk. For SKA the first round against Atlant (4-1) was a walk through just as the second round against Severstal Cherepovets (4-0) but when the important series started they were beaten by later champions Dynamo Moscow (2-4) and were beaten mostly due to great coaching on behalf of Dynamo head coachs Olegs Snaroks.

Welcome. Game starts at 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET / 16:00 MSK.