Another shot from Panov, he's had a lot of shots tonight, hits Vehanen in the arm.

Draw won straight back to Katichev, who's slapper is tipped along the way and hits the pad of Vehanen, then the zone is cleared.

Panov shoots on a Traktor rush, hits Vehanen, who covers.

Icing Lev.

Icing Traktor.

Lev kills off another penalty and they start out of the zone.

Valeyev with the shot, another glove save by Vehanen, and he holds it.

Tomas Kubalik with the shot, another save Demchenko, who's actually been pretty busy since coming into the game.

Lukas Cingel seems to have become a permanent fixture on the Lev top line now. This was Niko Kapanen's first game back after missing 5 games with a lower-body injury, and the coaching staff seems to have decided that, with this game in hand, the Finnish Flash shouldn't overdo it.

Icing Traktor with :10 left in the off-setting minors.

Thornberg crosses the blue line and fires a high rocket that Demchenko knocks down.

Panov with the shot, glove save Vehanen and he holds on, as these teams play 4 on 4.

Sekac crosses the line and fires a high wrister that Demchenko catches and holds.

Offside Lev with 1:06 left in the power play.

Gragnani and Kostitsyn pushing and shoving in the corner after a hit, Kostitsyn looks to the ref for a penalty but he says it's tit for tat, play on, and they do.

Ridderwall shoots from the boards, pad save Demchenko, then the rebound is blocked. Finally the puck goes out of play with :12 left in the penalty. Faceoff in the Traktor zone.

Offside Traktor.

Dmitri Sayustov shoots on a Traktor rush, pad save Vehanen.

Icing Traktor.

Lev ices as the penalty ends, and we're now back to 5 on 5.

Now Vehanen covers the puck with :35 left in the penalty.

A huge hit for Andrei Kostitsyn. The fans wanted a penalty, but that was actually a good, hard hit.

Alexander Guskov shoots from the point, Vehanen stops it then a Traktor forward falls on top of him. Nothing comes of it. Faceoff is going outside, though, with 1:07 left in the penalty.

Danielsson rips a slapper on the rush that hits Garnett on the cuff of the catching glove and falls in front of him, then it's cleared.

Icing Traktor.

Jaakola shoots from the point, it's tipped on the way and goes on Garnett, who covers.

Puck flipped into the Lev zone and Vehanen stops and covers it.

Play is stopped in the Traktor zone as they have a player down at the far end of the ice. It's Stanislav Chistov and I didn't see what happened to him, but he seems to be alright as he now heads to the bench.

Lev looking for more. Repik circles the net and finds Vrana in front, his shot hits Garnett.

Puck deflected out of play in the Traktor zone, faceoff outside.

Now Traktor's 4th line comes in and Vehanen has to make a glove save and hold on.

Icing Lev.

Andrei Kostitsyn leads a rush into the Lev zone and tries to go high stick side on Vehanen but hits the shoulder.

Now a wrister from Kubalik in the slot hits Garnett and he holds on.

One-timer from Martin Sevc, stick save Garnett.

Offside Traktor.

Big hit by former Montreal Canadien Andrei Kostitsyn on Ondrej Nemec along the boards.

Offside Traktor as Stanislav Chistov went in early and couldn't get back to the line in time.

Offside Lev.

Now back at full strength, Jan Bulis leads a Traktor rush and takes a hard, low wrister--pad save Petri Vehanen.

Topi Jaakola takes a slapper from the point that hits Garnett up high just as the penalty ends.

Nathan Oystrick is crunched into the near-side boards on the power play. I couldn't see exactly what happened from this angle but he's coming to the bench in considerable pain. Looks like he's favouring the right knee. Play continues meanwhile.

Lev back at full strength and they break out of the zone.

Rybyakin shoots from the point, Vehanen stops that and the rebound, play continues in the Lev zone.

Weak shot from Jan Bulis in front, Lev ices as we approach the midpoint of the penalty.

Play leaves the zone and quickly back in again. Once again, Garnett puts a glove on a bouncing puck in front of him, :39 left in the penalty.

Play goes straight to the net off the draw and Garnett covers it in a crowd, :58 left in the penalty.

Martin Sevc shoots from the point and Michael Garnett makes a glove save and holds on with 1:02 left in the penalty.

The puck deflects out of play in the Lev zone, faceoff inside.

Lev with another forray into the Traktor zone but Kevin Garnett keeps it out and they clear the zone.

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

Lev Praha is wearing home red uniforms with blue and white trim, red NY Rangers-style pants and blue helmets. Traktor Chelyabinsk is wearing road white with red and black trim, black pants and white helmets.

Starting Lineups:

Lev Praha: Vehanen (Lukáš) – Oystrick, Němec, Gragnani, Ševc, Jaakola, O'Byrne, Humphries – Kubalík, Kapanen, Klepiš – Riderwall, Azevedo, Danielsson – Sekáč, Zackrisson, Thörnberg – Birner, Vrána, Řepík – Cingel.

Traktor Chelyabinsk: Garnett (Demchenko) – Ryabykin, Vasilchenko, Bondarev, Kondratyev, Katichev, Klimontov, Guskov, Flyagin – Dugin, Kontiola, Kostitsyn – Chistov, Bulis, Panov – Glinkin, Sayustov, Mokin – Kokuyov, Osnovin, Valeyev.

Referees: Kadyrov, Cherenkov – Golovlyov, Shelyanin.

Traktor Chelyabinsk made it to the Gagarin Cup Final last season, but have got off to a slow start to this season. Currently, they are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in with 18 points in 12 games, and have surrendered 6 more goals than they´ve scored. They come into Prague on a high note, though, winning 3-1 in Moscow against CSKA on Wednesday.

Probably the biggest reason for the success in the past couple seasons has been the play of goaltender Michael Garnett, who was named to the KHL All-Star Game both years and last year was named the league´s top goalie. He is the KHL´s all-time leader in wins with 106, five of which have been earned this season. He has played every minute of Traktor´s first 12 games this season, and has a goals-against average of 2.57 and a save percentage of .917.

They do have some big names up front, too, led by Finn Petri Kontiola with 12 points. He´s mostly a playmaker, but all 3 of his goals have been on the power play. The teams top goal scorers this season have been Andrei Kostitsyn and Stanislav Chistov with 4 each. Other notable names include Latvian Lauris Darzinš and Czech Jan Bulis. Dmitri Rybyakin leads the defence with 6 points, while Renat Mamashev, an all star last year, is out of the lineup right now and has only played four games.

Of course, there has been big news in the Lev camp the past couple days. Václav Sýkora has stepped down from the head coaching position, citing family reasons, but will stay on as an assistant coach to new bench boss Kari Jalonen. Jalonen practiced with his new team for the first time on Thursday, and will debut behind the bench on Friday.

The Lions got back into the win column with a 2-0 victory Wednesday over Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, in which Petri Vehanen picked up his 1st shutout of the season on his 36th birthday. About Friday´s opponents, he said: "Playing against Traktor is never easy. When I played there in Kazan, they had a team full of very talented and technically sound players."

Last season, the teams split their two meetings, each winning at home. On September 29 in Chelyabinsk, Garnett stopped 40 of 42 shots to backstop his team to a 5-2 victory and then, on January 10 in Prague, Lev won 6-2 in which Lukáš Cingel scored his 1st KHL goal (pictured above) and Erik Christensen was lost for the season.

Welcome. This game starts at 19:30 CEST local time in Prague, 23:30 YEKT in Chelyabinsk, 13:30 EDT.