Division rivals will meet for the second time this season. In first game Atlant won after overtime 3-2. This is very high motivation game and win by HC MVD will mean only little chance for Atlant to clinch divison 1st position.
It is only 1/4th of league games to end regular season and standing at the top of Tarasov Division is : 1st HC MVD 78pts, 2nd Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 74pts and 3rd Atlant with 68pts.
Atlant Moscow bring slovakian goalie Jan Lasak, because of Martin Gerber's injury. His stats are excellent so far (7 games, 5 wins with 92,8%). Atlant is also in good shape and won 17 games in last 22 (but 9 after overtime or shootout). Home team is more and more depending on Sergei Mozyakin, Nikolai Zherdev and Jan Bulis goals. Fortunatelly for Atlant they are still helping to decide results.
HC MVD is playing solid and tactical ice-hockey, as we can see only three teams were able to score more then three goals against HC MVD in last 25 games. This is the main reason, that this team is the second best in the Western Conference. Netminder Michael Garnett is just little bit over 2,00 goals scored against him per game.