Before the Game: Barys vs Ak Bars

Barys continues its home stretch with a matchup against Ak Bars.

The Kazan team comes into this contest riding a six-game winning streak. In their previous outing, Ak Bars defeated Sibir 4–1 in Novosibirsk. Artem Galimov, Mitchell Miller, Kirill Semyonov, and Vladimir Alistrov all found the back of the net, while Mikhail Berdin stopped 19 shots on goal. Head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin noted that his team is solving several tasks during this road trip, with one of them being to find consistency.

Through 16 games, Ak Bars has collected 21 points. The team’s top scorer is Kirill Semyonov (6+7). Mitchell Miller (5+8) ranks among the top five point-producing defensemen in the league. Defenseman Albert Yarullin remains sidelined with an injury.

Barys snapped its losing streak on Thursday with an emotional 6–2 victory over Avangard. The team’s leading scorer, Riley Walsh (6+9), extended his point streak to five games and currently sits among the KHL’s top three defensemen by points. Mason Morelli surpassed the 10-point mark (4+7), while Adil Beketayev netted his first goal of the season. Goaltender Adam Scheel recorded 42 saves. Head coach Mikhail Kravets praised his team’s effort, saying every player “gave 200 percent,” which helped secure the long-awaited win.

The Kazakh club now has 16 points after 17 games. This will be the third meeting between Barys and Ak Bars this season. The previous two encounters both ended with narrow victories for the Kazan side (2–1 and 4–3).

Faceoff: 17:00 Astana time
Tickets: Available at the Barys Arena box office and online at hcbarys.kz/tickets.

General Partner of HC Barys: JSC Samruk-Kazyna
Partner of HC Barys: Tourism and Sports Industry Support Fund

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