MINSK (Interstat) — Traktor will visit Dinamo Minsk in a Kontinental Hockey League game Friday at Minsk-Arena. Traktor enters with an 8-11 record, while Dinamo Minsk is 7-13. Traktor’s most recent result was a 5-1 loss at CSKA Moscow, following a 2-1 win against Sibir Novosibirsk and a 3-1 win against Ak Bars Kazan. Dinamo Minsk’s most recent result was a 1-0 loss to Barys Astana, after a 2-1 overtime win at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and a 3-2 overtime loss at HC Sochi. Traktor’s recent results also include a 6-2 win at Shanghai Dragons, a 2-1 loss to Sibir Novosibirsk and a 2-0 loss to Amur Khabarovsk. Dinamo Minsk’s recent results also include a 3-2 win at Shanghai Dragons, a 6-1 loss at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and a 4-2 win against SKA Saint Petersburg.

Traktor’s player to watch is Boris Katchouk. In his most recent game, Katchouk recorded one goal and one shot on goal. Andrei Svetlakov had one assist, two shots on goal and six hits in that game, and Sergei Telegin had three shots on goal and one hit. Katchouk also had two assists and three shots on goal in a win against Ak Bars Kazan and three shots on goal against Amur Khabarovsk. Katchouk has recorded at least one shot on goal in each of his last seven appearances.

Dinamo Minsk’s player to watch is Sergei S. Kuznetsov. In a loss to Barys Astana, Kuznetsov recorded four shots on goal and four hits. Nicolas Aube-Kubel had two shots on goal, and Sam Anas had six shots on goal and two hits in that game. Kuznetsov had one goal, three shots on goal and three hits in a win at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, and he had one goal, four shots on goal and one hit against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. He also recorded one assist, one shot on goal and two penalty minutes at Shanghai Dragons. Kuznetsov has recorded at least one shot on goal in each of his last 10 appearances and has posted multiple hits in five of those games.

Traktor will return home for games against CSKA, Barys, Ak Bars, Avtomobilist and Shanghai before road games at Severstal, SKA, Sibir and Metallurg M and a home game against Lada. Dinamo Minsk’s upcoming schedule includes a home game against Dynamo, road games at Spartak, Sochi, SKA, Torpedo, Neftekhimik, Barys, Metallurg M and Salavat Yulaev, and a home game against Avangard.

Interstat’s game simulator is projecting a final score of Dinamo Minsk 3, Traktor 2. Interstat’s ELO system is projecting Dinamo Minsk with a 52.6 percent probability to win. The over/under for this game is 4.5.