High slapper from Sevc goes wide.

Vrana falls and loses the puck, Korneyev ices . . .

Nemec the one-timer from the point, off Barulin's pad.

Now a pass misses and Lev called for icing. They're on the power play for the rest of the period unless they take a penalty themselves.

Ak Bars clears for the third time, Lev still shotless on this PP.

Burmistrov takes down Gragnani hard as the two race for the puck deep in the Lev zone.

Jakub Klepis winds and fires from just outside the blueline, pad save Baruln, then Ak Bars ices the puck.

Icing Lev. Just before that, Alexander Svitov gave Ryan O'Byrne a hard hit into the boards, payback for a hit earlier in the game.

Thornberg shoots on a rush, Barulin got a glove on it and the puck goes behind the net.

Artyom Lukoyanov turns and fires in the Lev zone, hits either Vehanen or O'Byrne's skate and goes to the corner.

Icing Ak Bars. Lev has had the run of play this period.

Play now in the Lev zone, Yevgeni Medvedev shoots from the point, hits Vehanen square and he holds on.

Nakladal shoots from a sharp angle, no room on the near side and Barulin covers.

Nakladal fires a shot from the neutral zone, pad save Barulin.

Now Ryan O'Byrne hammers Alexander Svitov. The home crowd is into this game now.

Icing Lev.

The puck goes out of play in the Ak Bars zone, faceoff inside.

Burmistrov wins a race for the puck and slaps it at Vehanen in close, he stops it and holds on.

Now the puck goes out of play in the Lev zone, faceoff inside.

Novotny the backhander in front, pad save Barulin.

Gragnani from the point, Repik tips it just wide.

Back the other way, Sekac's shot hits Barulin and goes out of play. Faceoff in the Ak Bars zone.

Pesonen with a hard shot from the right wing, blocker save Vehanen.

Offside Lev. A bit earlier on the play Jiri Novotny hammered Shaun Heshka in the corner, who got up slowly.

Icing Lev on a stretch pass off target.

Erik Christensen blasts a shot that hits Barulin in the shoulder.

Lev now back at full strength, and Ak Bars is called for icing.

Vehanen makes a nice save off Pesonen, sliding across with the paddle down late in the penalty.

Korneyev from the point again, stick save Vehanen.

Martin Thornberg with the chance shorthanded, glove save Barulin and he hangs on for a faceoff in the Ak Bars zone.

Nemec shoots from the point, stick save Barulin, the rebound was in Repik's skates but he couldn't get a shot off.

Michal Birner leads a Lev rush and goes fast to the net but Alexander Barulin stands his ground, makes a pad save and covers.

Varnakov shoots from point blank at the tail end of the power play, another save Vehanen and the puck is cleared to end the penalty.

Medvedev from the point, pad save Vehanen.

Konstantin Korneyev with the big one-timer from the point, pad save Vehanen. Finally the puck goes out of lpay with 1:23 left in the penalty. Faceoff in the Lev zone.

Michal Repik was in the zone offside and he didn't know it. Finally play was stopped and the linesman indicates a faceoff all the way back in the Lev zone.

Finally a shot from Patrik Zackrisson and Barulin holds on. The Kazan goalie was busy on that last sequence, and the Prague crowd gives the home team a nice hand for that bit of pressure.

Nathan Oystrick from the point, pad save Barulin, then Jiri Novotny in front and another save.

Vladimir Tkachev on a Kazan rush shoots high off the glass, play continues.

Wrister from Nicklas Danielsson on a Lev rush, hits Barulin and he holds on.

Mikhail Varnakov tries to shoot from the left wing, hits the outside of the net.

Icing Kazan.

Lev d-man Marc-Andre Gragnani gets the period's first shot, a slapper from the point that hits the top of Barulin's pad and goes to the corner.

Lev breaks out of the zone quickly but then go offside.

Tereschenko shoots from a sharp angle, stick save Vehanen.

Another icing against Lev.

Icing Lev.

Birner shoots on a rush, blocker save Barulin.

Lev comes back the other way, get a couple of shots on Barulin, then Kazan ices the puck, so the faceoff's coming back to their end.

Tomas Vincour shoots just high for Kazan.

Quickly back the other way, Cingel shoots on a Lev rush but Barulin stops and hangs on.

Repik tries a centering pass but it hits a Kazan stick and goes out of play. Faceoff in the Kazan zone.

One-time slapper from the point by Stepan Zakharchuk from the point. It was on the ice and Petri Vehanen just gets a piece of it to tip it wide.

Varnakov gets the puck in the slot and tries to go to his backhand but Oystrick won't give him a lane, and the Canadian defenceman then crunches him into the boards a few moments later.

Icing Ak Bars.

Alexander Burmistrov shoots from his off wing, which is always tricky for a goalie but Vehanen hangs on for a stoppage.

Varnakov shoots on a Kazan rush, Vehanen catches and holds on.

Grigory Panin with a huge hit on Ondrej Nemec in the boards. The Czech defenceman is alright but he surely felt that one.

Intentional offside is called against Ak Bars as a player was in ahead of the play and the shot went on goal. :48 left in the penalty and the faceoff is back in the Ak Bars zone.

One-time slapper from Kapanen goes just wide.

Dmitri Obukhov with the shot, deflected out of play. Faceoff in the Lev zone.

Mikhail Varnakov tries to walk out of the corner to the front of the Lev net with the puck but he's knocked down without getting a shot.

Back the other way again, and pressure from Lev, Barulin forced to make a couple of saves, play continues.

Janne Pesonen with a hard slapper on a Kazan rush, kicked out by Petri Vehanen.

Puck out of play again, this time the faceoff comes outside the Lev line.

First Kazan foray of the game, Vladimir Tkachev gets the first shot and Stepan Zakharchuk shoots from the point, it`s deflected out of play. Faceoff inside.

Jakub Nakladal shoots from the point, deflected wide in front.

Lev putting on the early pressure, Konstantin Barulin covers.

On a Lev rush, Jakub Klepis shoots from a sharp angle and his shot lands on teh side of the net. Some of the fans cheered as from a certain angle it looked like it went in, but definitely not. Faceoff in the Kazan zone, as it must have been tipped on the way.

The national anthems of the Russian Federation and Czech Republic are complete, and the opening faceoff is moments away.

Lev Praha is wearing their home red uniforms with blue and white trim, red NY Rangers-style pants and blue helmets. AK Bars Kazan is wearing road white with red and forest green trim, forest green pants and white helmets.

Starting Lineups:

Lev Praha: Vehanen (Lukáš) – Oystrick (A), O'Byrne, Ševc, Nakládal, Gragnani, Němec (A), Mikuš – Novotný (C), Kapanen (A), Klepiš – Birner, Vrána, Řepík – Sekáč, Zackrisson, Thörnberg – Cingel, Christensen, Danielsson.

Ak Bars Kazan: Barulin (Yarolavlev) – Korneyev, Nikulin (C), Medvedev (A), Heshka, Panin, Zakharchuk, Yarullin – Pesonen, Tereschenko (A), Petrov – Stapleton, Burmistrov, Varnakov – Lukoyanov, Svitov, Obukhov – Vincour, Tkachev, Golubev – Faizullin.

Referees: Odinš, Rönn – Metalnikov, Sirotkin.

Last season, AK Bars finished 1st in the Eastern Conference with 104 points, then were defeated in the Conference Final in heartbreaking fashion by Traktor Chelyabinsk, who won game 7 in Kazan by a 2-1 score -- after Janne Pesonen tied the game with under six minutes to play, Andre Kostitsyn scored the winner for Traktor with just :29 remaining in regulation time.

Kazan beat Lev in both meetings last year. Artyom Lyukoyanov scored the winner with :18 left in a 4-2 home-ice win on October 10, and then Konstantin Barulin made 23 saves for a 2-0 shutout win in Prague on Christmas Eve. Barulin and Emil Garipov are back between the pipes this year. In front of them are big changes, however. Their top forwards last year were Alexei Morozov, Danis Zaripov, Jarkko Immonen and all are gone, replaced by Alexander Burmsitov, Tim Stapleton and Chris Bourque. All three have experience in both the NHL and KHL, although for Bourque, he´s three years removed from when he last played in Russia.

"I´ve played in this league before, so I kind of know what to expect," the son of Hall-of-Fame defenceman Ray Bourque said during the pre-season. "But it´s been three years, so I´m just getting re-adjusted to the style of play here. It´s a bit different from in North America. But it´s fun hockey to play and there are good players here."

Top defenceman Ilya Nikolin is back, and he´s joined by Canadian Shaun Heshka, whose 8 points lead all defencemen in the league. Eight games into the new season, AK Bars has 14 points, which ties them for 3rd in the conference.

The Lions and their fans are already a bit familar with the new AK Bars lineup, having faced them twice during the Prague Hockey Cup at Tipsport Arena in August. In the round-robin portion, Kazan won 4-3 in a shootout, but Lev won the tournament final the next day 4-1.

Since the start of the regular season, Lev has won five of seven games overall, and have taken 8 of 9 possible points on this homestand so far. With 15 points in seven games, they are 5th in the West, with a game in hand on all four teams ahead of them. A win and some help on Monday could vault them into 2nd.

Monday´s game will be an emotional one for two of Lev´s players who will be playing against their former team: goaltender Petri Vehanen and centre Niko Kapanen.

"Of course it will be an emotional game for me. It´s always a weird thing to play against friends," the Finnish goalie said in the wake of Saturday´s 2-1 win over Dynamo Moscow. "But we have to play the same way against them as we did today and hopefully we win."

As for Kapanen, he scored the winning goal on Saturday, which ties him for the team lead in points with Martin Thörnberg with 5.

Welcome. This game starts at 19:00 CEST local time in Prague, 21:00 MSK in Kazan, 13:00 EDT.