Minski are still in the middle of the fight for the top eight in the West and every point is very important for them. But with the accumulation of these points, Minsk residents now face frank difficulties and hardships. Not so long ago, the “bison” had a long losing streak, so defeats are actively slipping away. As for the upcoming fight, it’s hard to pick the Minskers favorites as they will have a frankly tough opponent, plus the Bisons’ home ice play has been extremely unconvincing lately, 8 home defeats in 10 games is a lot. In the last round, the “bison” were able to replenish their piggy bank with two valuable points, defeating Kunlun. Now the opponent will be on a completely different level, nor for Minsk in general, Torpedo is one of the most uncomfortable opponents in the league. The teams have already met three times this season, Nizhny Novgorod has two wins and one more draw. The prospects for local owners are therefore not very diverse.

Nizhny Novgorod continues to fight for the top four, now they manage to turn it around quite well and in this fight they are two points ahead of Dynamo Moscow. Now the move of Nizhny Novgorod is quite acceptable, they do not collect wins in batches, but regularly transfer points to their piggy bank, and they had 3 victories in the previous 4 rounds. The upcoming meeting of Nizhny Novgorod is unlikely to be exceptional, because the rivals, although motivated, are a secondary team. Besides, as I said, meetings with the Torpedo turn out to be very difficult for the Minsk people, and the inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod much more often benefit from such meetings. Here, it is reasonable to believe that the local guests will be able to replenish their piggy bank with more points and will further increase their chances of finishing in the top 4 at the end of the regular season.