Avangard - Metallurg on February 27: the leaders of the Eastern Conference will meet on the ice

On Friday, February 27, the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) regular season match between the two leading teams of the Eastern Conference will take place. The game will take place at the Hawks' home arena, the G—Drive Arena in Omsk. The pre—match layouts, the history of the confrontation and the forecast for the outcome of the meeting are in the Izvestia material.

What time is the start of the Avangard —Metallurg match on February 27

The teams will meet at the G-Drive Arena at 16:30 Moscow time. According to Omsk time, the match will start at 19:30. The match will be broadcast on the KHL website, as well as on Russian sports channels.

The history of team meetings and the results of previous games

Earlier, Avangard and Metallurg had already collided on the ice on January 8, 2026. Then Avangard lost to Metallurg with a score of 2:1. A month later, the leaders of the Eastern Conference will meet again on the ice.

Now the teams are almost on par in terms of the number of points scored: 94 for the Foxes and 84 for the hawks. At the same time, Avangard played one game more than Metallurg — 59 matches.

Both teams have performed well this season. Nevertheless, the fans are currently hearing the last two games of Avangard against the team from Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist, where the hawks lost 5-1, and against the team from Khabarovsk Amur, which ended against Omsk with a score of 3:4.

Metallurg's last match also ended in defeat: Magnitogorsk lost to Severstal with a score of 3:4. During the game, team leader Dmitry Silantyev unsuccessfully crashed into the side and was eliminated for the rest of the season. Metallurg coach Andrey Razin had to urgently decide how to compensate one of the key players.

What has changed in the teams since the last match

The main change occurred at Metallurg: striker Dmitry Silantyev is out until the end of the season.

"This is a serious blow, because Silantyev was an important part of the Tkachev-Kanzerov—Silantyev top flight, and now Razin needs to reassemble the top three and redistribute roles/minutes," Roman Gabdrafikov, author of the hockey blog Roman with Hockey and a two—time KHL award winner, told Izvestia.The best blogger" and the host of the program "Our hockey".

The expert added that Avangard has fewer changes, although the situation is about the same for the injured (striker Alexander Volkov is out for a while). Otherwise, Hawks coach Guy Boucher can count on almost everyone — the squad looks more predictable.

Who should I pay attention to at the Avangard —Metallurg match on January 27, 2026

The main intrigue will be Silantyev's replacement at Metallurg — who will glue the three together, who will have more time.

Gabdrafikov recommends paying attention to the leaders of Magnitogorsk, Vladimir Tkachev and Roman Kantserov. According to the expert, the leaders of the attacking units and Damir Sharipzyanov, who is breaking record after record, should not be underestimated in the "Vanguard".

The game looks good: KHL records record attendance of matches

On average, slightly less than 8 thousand spectators attended the meetings of the first half of the season.

The forecast for the Avangard —Metallurg match on January 27, 2026

There will be a confrontation between two schools on the ice: Omsk and Magnitogorsk have been competing with each other for many years.

"According to the regular season over the past three seasons, the pair has generally been as even as possible, and this is a good guideline. The key plot is how Metallurg will rebuild itself without Silantiev and how quickly it will work against the organized Avangard. Omsk, in turn, has an important implementation issue: there will be moments, but Metallurg knows how to tolerate and punish mistakes. Therefore, the match can be decided in the special teams and in the end due to discipline and a cool head," Gabdrafikov emphasized.

It will be an important match for Omsk: they have lost several matches, and a new setback can bring the series to three defeats in a row and four in the last five matches. Therefore, the expert pointed out, we can expect that the mood will be exorbitant.

Last season, the teams crossed paths in the playoffs: in the 1/8 finals of 2025, Avangard won the series against Metallurg 4:2 (goals 14-12), and two matches went into overtime - both were taken by Avangard, and both times the winning goal was scored by Vladimir Tkachev, who now defends The colors of Metallurg.

Lineups of teams

Avangard

Forwards: Kirill Dolzhenkov, Ivan Igumnov, Mikhail Kotlyarevsky, Michael MacLeod, Igor Martynov, Konstantin Okulov, Kirill Pilipenko, Vasily Ponomarev, Andrew Poturalski, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Dmitry Rashevsky, Giovanni Fiore, Nail Yakupov, Alexander Volkov.

Defenders: Artem Blazhievsky, Vyacheslav Voynov, Mikhail Gulyaev, Marcel Ibragimov, Maxim Lajoie, Joseph Cecconi, Semyon Chistyakov, Damir Sharipzyanov.

Goalkeepers: Andrey Mishurov, Nikita Serebryakov.

Metallurg

Forwards: Derek Barak, Daniil Vovchenko, Luke Johnson, Ruslan Iskhakov, Roman Kanzerov, Andrey Kozlov, Egor Korobkin, Nikita Korotkov, Nikita Mikhailis, Alexander Petunin, Dmitry Silantyev, Danil Sysoev, Vladimir Tkachev, Sergey Tolchinsky, Mikhail Fedorov.

Defenders: Alexey Maklyukov, Artyom Minulin, Valery Orekhov, Danila Palivko, Robin Press, Alexander Siryatsky, Makar Khabarov, Egor Yakovlev.

Goalkeepers: Nabokov Ilya, Smolin Alexander, Trofimov Andrey.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.