News

The Super Series is in danger of falling off the Russian map if the host team can't play its way back into the eight-game series.

Russia was facing a sweep at home by Canada heading into Saturday's Game 4 (TSN, 6 a.m. ET) after losing the first two games in Ufa earlier this week and the third in Omsk on Friday.

The series has had solid local support in both communities as their brand new arenas — 8,500 seats in Ufa and 10,000 seats in Omsk — have been sold out for each of the first three games.

Some Russian fans were belting out their national anthem in the third period of Friday's Game 3 even though their team was going down 6-2.

The Canadian team has been met off the plane by media in each city and the Russian squad had a group of fans at the airport to meet them when they arrived at 4 a.m. in Omsk on Thursday morning.

But nationally, this series is a tougher sell. An article about the Super Series was buried behind pages of soccer coverage in the Russian sports daily SportsExpress on Friday.

The game are shown live on satellite television and a compressed encore showing on the main NTV network is broadcast late at night.

Friday's Game 3 drew a large media contingent, but that was because the country's heavy hitters in sport were in Omsk.

Minister of Sport Slava Fetisov and Russian Ice Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak, who are both hockey legends in their country, held a news conference to expound the virtues of both cities having built shiny new arenas and how the facilities would develop athletes locally.

There were almost as many people in the stands for a figure skating show preceding the hockey game Friday in Omsk.

While the second game in Ufa was said to be a sellout, there were a few no-shows and attendance at Saturday's Game 4, which will be the second game in Omsk, will indicate if interest is waning.

The novelty of opening new buildings and the appearances by Fetisov and Tretiak have helped build hype and get people into the seats.

However, it remains to be seen if those who are interested in the series remain so if Russia is swept at home and heads to Canada to play games that could become meaningless and that will be on television early in the morning.