The regular season brought success for CSKA and Vityaz, but the playoffs belonged to Lokomotiv. Meanwhile, three of these seven teams have already dismissed last season’s head coach …
CSKA Moscow – third time unlucky for regular season champ
Results: Regular season champion for the third year running, CSKA looked well placed for a serious tilt at the Gagarin Cup that still eludes it. But Lokomotiv derailed Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team in the Conference Semi Final, and that saw the head coach dismissed.
Summary: In a word, mixed. CSKA, in recent seasons, has returned to the high expectations and standards of the past. In Soviet times, it was inconceivable that the Army Men would not be in the running for hardware; today, the quest for the Gagarin Cup is the inspiration. Under Kvartalnov, there was a sense that glory was edging closer. A Conference Final loss to SKA in 2015, a Gagarin Cup Final loss to Magnitka in 2016, the sequence suggested 2017 might be the year.
Admittedly, the roster lost some of its luster over the summer. Alexander Radulov, arguably the most exciting talent in the KHL, headed across the Atlantic for a second crack at the NHL. Nikita Zaitsev, one of the brightest young defensemen in Russia, followed. Kvartalnov faced the task of replacing the irreplaceable, and to some extent did not attempt to do so. Summer recruits – Greg Scott, Bud Holloway – were solid, rather than spectacular. This was to be a pragmatic, hard-to-beat CSKA, rather than a team perpetually on the brink of an eruption of goals.
In regular season, it worked. For much of the season, the race for top spot was neck and neck. SKA provided the flair, the flamboyance and a record-breaking goal tally. CSKA quietly won and won. When the music stopped, the two were almost inseparable: 137 points each, CSKA got the nod due to more wins in regulation.
But in post-season, that pragmatism teetered on the brink of predictability. A first-round sweep of Jokerit was impressive on paper, but three games going into overtime suggested that it wasn’t as dominant as the box scores suggested. There was a feeling that CSKA was finding it hard to put teams away and, as the opposition got stronger, would become increasingly vulnerable. Thus it proved. Lokomotiv found the answers, winning three games straight to take the Conference Semi Final 4-2 and run down the curtain on Kvartalnov’s time in the capital.
What next: Until a new head coach is confirmed, CSKA will inevitably be subject to intense speculation. Whoever takes on the job will be expected to lead a serious bid for the big prize, with little margin for error.
Dynamo Moscow – ups and downs in the capital
Results: At times terrible, at times terrific, Dynamo eventually took third place in the Western Conference before yielding to SKA in the Conference Semi Final. Head coach Sergei Oreshkin left the club at the end of the season, to be replaced by Vladimir Vorobyov, promoted from within.
Summary: There was a time when it seemed that the unthinkable could happen. Dogged by uninspiring form, Dynamo was in danger of missing out on the playoffs in the first half of the season. Eventually, the team turned it around with a powerful run in the New Year, amassing 14 wins from 16 games to climb to third in the table.
However, the seeds of the team’s playoff problems could be seen even in that run: defeats against Ak Bars and Metallurg Magnitogorsk during that run suggested that there was still some distance between Dynamo and the league’s biggest hitters. That was pretty much how things turned out. A first-round series with Torpedo provided challenges – four games went to overtime – but Dynamo prevailed 4-1. Up against SKA in round two, though, not even a hat-trick from Maxim Karpov in Game One could save the Blue-and-Whites. That opening game brought the team its only victory; the other noteworthy moments came from Andrei Kuteikin’s goals from the red line to embarrass Mikko Koskinen and Mikhail Biryukov during the playoffs.
Once again, Dynamo saw plenty of players deliver solid performances – six forwards and three D-men contributed 20 or more points in the regular season. But only two, Martins Karsums and Juuso Hietanen, went over 30. The lack of a real go-to guy who could snap tight games ultimately prevented Dynamo from emerging into the front-runners this time around.
What next: Vorobyov’s appointment offers continuity. He was part of Oreshkin’s coaching team last season and will be among familiar faces again next time. His ambition, clearly stated in a recent interview, is to bring the Gagarin Cup back to Dynamo. But last season suggests there is some distance to travel before the Blue-and-Whites can launch a genuine championship push.
HC Sochi – playoff failure sparks coaching change
Results: Sochi’s battle to make the playoffs was not resolved until the final day of the regular season – and ended in failure. A ninth-place finish saw the Black Sea team miss out on post season for the first time in its three-year history, and prompted the departure of head coach Vyacheslav Butsayev.
Summary: It all started so well. In the early weeks of the season, Sochi was in fine form and Swedish forward Andre Petersson was among the leading scorers in the KHL. The talk in the south was about whether this team could improve on its previous, brief playoff runs and mount a more serious challenge.
Then it all went wrong. Petersson, and others, ran into injury trouble. Twelve losses in 18 games through November and December put a big hole in those playoff hopes. The New Year saw a revival – six wins, three losses in January, and the playoff dream was still alive. But Sochi’s rivals, Jokerit and Vityaz, also kept picking up points. It came down to the final week, and the fixture list conspired against the team. Trips to title-chasing CSKA and SKA were hardly ideal for a team in desperate need of wins; two defeats, and Sochi was left just outside the top eight.
With no playoff action, the focus fell on Butsayev. He took charge of the team when it was created to make use of Sochi’s Olympic facilities, and assembled a roster from scratch that was never out of its depth in the Western Conference. But, after three years, there was little evidence of progress and the decision was made to seek a new direction.
What next: Sergei Zubov, most recently seen behind the bench at SKA in 2015-16, is the incoming head coach. Zubov was not involved in the season just gone, leaving SKA when Oleg Znarok arrived in Petersburg. The 46-year-old brings a wealth of experience, winning two Stanley Cups and Olympic gold as a player and joining Vyacheslav Bykov’s Gagarin Cup-winning coaching crew at SKA. Now he has a chance to build a team in his own image for the first time.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl – consistency and progress
Results: Lokomotiv came fourth in the Western Conference table, stunned regular season champion CSKA in the playoffs and reached the Conference Final before succumbing to SKA. The Yaroslavl team finished with bronze medals for its efforts.
Summary: In his second year at the helm of Lokomotiv, head coach Alexei Kudashov was looking to turn potential into results – and a deep playoff run. The summer brought new recruits in the form of Max Talbot, a former Stanley Cup winner, and Brandon Kozun, fresh from an effective season with Jokerit. Kozun arrived from Finland via SKA, who traded him for Sergei Plotnikov’s rights after the former Loko forward returned from a tough season in North America.
Those two new forwards quickly found an understanding with Petri Kontiola, producing a line that plundered 132 points in the regular season. On defense, the early departure of Patrik Hersley to SKA was offset by the arrival of Jakub Nakladal, while Staffan Kronwall remained a solid figure on the blue line.
But, first and foremost, Loko impressed with its young players. Pavel Kraskovsky, Yegor Korshkov and Alexander Polunin continued to make an impact, building on last season’s success. Kraskovsky and Korshkov, the older two, won call-ups for Russia’s senior team during the Euro Hockey Tour, while Polunin made his second trip to the World Juniors as all three cemented burgeoning reputations in the game.
The regular season was solid, with Lokomotiv taking fourth place in the West. Consistency was the key – save for one run of four defeats in five games as September moved into October, the team never suffered any prolonged loss of form. There were a few stand-out games along the way, most notably a 2-1 win at SKA that avenged a 1-7 mauling on home ice a few weeks earlier and wrapped up an impressive sequence of road wins that also took in CSKA and Torpedo.
CSKA and SKA would also define Lokomotiv’s post season. After despatching Dinamo Minsk in round one of the playoffs, Kudashov’s team was rated as an outsider against regular season champ CSKA. But the Army Men ran out of steam; a series that had been close snapped open in Game Four as Loko powered to a 5-1 victory. That tied the scores overall, and the Railwaymen won the next two games to advance to the Conference Final for the first time since 2014. SKA proved too strong, but the 0-4 result did not entirely reflect a series of close games; the eventual Gagarin Cup winner found a happy knack of snatching late wins, and ended Loko’s season.
What next: This season was a clear step forward for Lokomotiv, and with the younger players on the roster gaining valuable experience – especially in the playoff pressure cooker – the future seems bright. Kudashov, a Gagarin Cup winner as player with Dynamo, is steadily crafting his own reputation as a talented young coach, and his Loko team could be one to watch in the coming seasons.
Severstal Cherepovets – young prospects offer hope for future
Results: It’s a long time since playoff hockey came to Cherepovets – 2013 was the last post-season adventure for Severstal. A new head coach couldn’t buck that trend, but could it offer hope for a brighter future?
Summary: Alexander Gulyavtsev took over as head coach at Severstal and immediately set to work on shoring up a leaky defense. The arrival of goalie Jakub Kovar from Avtomobilist looked like a good capture, defensemen Clay Wilson and Adam Masuhr promised stability on the blue line. However, there wasn’t a sharp drop in goals allowed over the course of the season, and Kovar agreed a move back to Yekaterinburg once the campaign was over.
Things got off to a bad start, with a run of nine straight losses following an unexpected shoot-out win over Magnitogorsk. Roster reshuffles followed: former team captain Andrei Shefer and forward Roman Berdnikov were scratched but, apart from a five-game winning streak in the fall, results did not improve. The club marked its 60th anniversary with kind words and warm applause for its efforts in the upper echelons of Russian hockey, but spirited performances during that ‘retro weekend’ could not prevent home defeats against SKA and CSKA.
By the start of February, even a theoretical chance of making the playoffs was gone. Comfort came elsewhere, with Maxim Trunyov repaying the faith of Gulyavtsev to record his best ever KHL season and 19-year-old defenseman Vadim Kudako earning a bronze medal with Russia at the World Juniors. Daniil Vovchenko, 20, also picked up plaudits after impressing in a struggling team. Severstal has a long tradition of nurturing talent – think Vadim Shipachyov or Pavel Buchnevich, in recent seasons – and Kudako or Vovchenko could yet be the next big players to be forged in Cherepovets.
What next: When budgets are tight, everything depends on raising home-grown talent. Gulyavtsev, whose connections with the club go way back, showed every willingness to trust the local lads emerging from the junior teams and – with his position seemingly secure for the coming season – that is likely to continue. But it’s a big ask for a young team to end that wait for a playoff place without some meaningful investment in the roster.
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod – flying start, faltering finish
Results: A bright start to the season gradually dimmed; Torpedo came in sixth in the table, and fell to Dynamo at the start of the playoffs.
Summary: After last season’s abrasive but effective performances made Torpedo the kind of team nobody wanted to face, hopes were high for the coming campaign. The more optimistic fans in Nizhny Novgorod dared to dream that this might see a best-ever KHL finish and a run to the Conference Final.
The roster did not get a huge overhaul, with Peteris Skudra content with the efforts of his players last time out, and that consistency of selection was rewarded with a flying start. Torpedo rocketed to 11 wins in 15 games in September. Up until the New Year, the team was handily placed among the leaders in the Western Conference.
It didn’t quite last. Even at its best, the team was prone to inexplicable losses against modest opposition and when injuries began to bite, form inevitably faded. A slump in the closing weeks of the season saw a top-four finish turn into a sixth-place spot; the reward was a first-round playoff against Dynamo Moscow. Four of the five games went to overtime, and a combination of fine goaltending from Alexander Yeryomenko and a horrible blunder from Mikhail Biryukov contrived to put the Muscovites in control.
Torpedo’s final goal of the season was scored by Kirill Urakov, a 19-year-old forward who made his KHL debut this season. Still learning his trade, he picked up good notices for his contribution and was part of Russia’s roster at the World Juniors over New Year. His progress bodes well for a breakout season next year.
What next: Few coaches divide opinion like Peteris Skudra. His passion on the benches can boil over into a rage that saw him get into fights and pick up suspensions over the course of the season. But he seems to have earned the respect and affection of the hockey public in Nizhny Novgorod. If the season just gone was a small step back for his team, he will be given the chance to put things right and reshape the roster over the summer.
Vityaz Moscow Region – into the playoffs at last
Results: It was a historic season in Podolsk as Vityaz clinched a playoff spot for the first time in the KHL era. Head coach Valery Belov made all the difference after his arrival from Ak Bars; stepping out from his role alongside Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, he assembled a roster that was good enough for seventh place in the West.
Summary: Belov’s return to a club that he served as both player and coach in the Russian Super League was the big story of the summer. Recent history did not paint an attractive picture of Vityaz: years as a goon show had harmed the team’s reputation, while more recent seasons had seen the organization ditch the rough stuff but fail to produce results. There were some big name players – most obviously Maxim Afinogenov – but previous playoff bids tended to fizzle out in January at the latest.
This time, things were different. Belov recruited well, with the capture of Sibir’s Alexei Kopeikin proving to be a masterstroke. Kopeikin, approaching the veteran phase of his career, was rejuvenated by the move, scoring 51 points. That, in turn, seemed to inspire Afinogenov to his best ever KHL production with 47 points at the age of 37. Throw in the contribution of Miro Aaltonen, with 44 points in his rookie KHL season, and Vityaz had a potent offense. On defense, Jakub Jerabek made a big contribution while young goalie Igor Saprykhin stepped up effectively after injury ruled out first-choice Harri Sateri late in the season.
The season didn’t produce any blistering winning streaks, nor any alarming slumps. Instead the team maintained a steady mix of victories and defeats more or less throughout. Along the way, a high-scoring 9-5 win at home to Dinamo Minsk caught the eye and a 5-3 success at home to Kunlun clinched that long-awaited playoff spot. The game was played on Valentine’s Day, the result no doubt gladdened hearts.
Into the playoffs, and Vityaz faced a tough task against SKA. Ultimately, it was too much. A battling 1-3 loss in Game One was respectable, but the remaining three games ended in heavy defeats. “We no longer had the strength to fight,” concluded Belov.
What next: With Belov firmly in place, the team will look to build on this success and ensure that last year’s playoff run isn’t just a one-off. Getting beyond the first round becomes the next target.
From championship glory at SKA to rock bottom at Dinamo Riga, the Bobrov Division was a tale of the haves and have-nots. The seven teams in this section highlighted the clear contrast between clubs with significant budgets and organizations trying to assemble bargain rosters. Here’s a rundown of all seven clubs and their achievements and disappointments in 2016-17.
Dinamo Minsk – regular season success, playoff disappointment
Results: The Belarusians enjoyed their best ever regular season campaign, but are still waiting to make playoff progress. A first-round loss to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl means Dinamo has yet to reach the second round.
Summary: Craig Woodcroft’s arrival in Minsk brought a few changes. Goalie Ben Scrivens came with NHL experience, D-man Marc-Andre Gragnani returned to the KHL after helping Lev Prague to the 2014 Grand Final and the offense was reshaped to accommodate Sergei Kostitsyn, one of Belarus’ favorite hockey sons.
Dinamo started its season late, delayed by Belarus’ Olympic Qualifying campaign. The first game ended in a 4-2 defeat at Spartak, but 11 wins in the first 15 outings set the tone for a strong regular season. Hefty defeats at SKA and CSKA dampened thoughts of joining the Western Conference leaders, and suddenly the season was off on something of a roller-coaster. At times, Dinamo was excellent, stringing together winning runs and testing the strongest teams in the competition. At others, it was awful – to the point that even the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, was moved to describe a 1-3 home loss to Dinamo Riga as ‘shameful’.
Oddly, the combination added up to statistically the club’s best KHL season, finishing with 105 points to claim fifth place in the West. But then, once again, the slump struck. A playoff series against Lokomotiv was over in five games with 2-7 and 1-5 defeats along the way; a solitary home win came too late to test the Railwaymen and Dinamo’s season was over. Woodcroft’s campaign, never short of entertainment, ended up posing as many questions as it could answer.
What’s next: Woodcroft, who is also assist coach for Team Belarus, will be staying next season. A self-confessed perfectionist, he spoke of learning the lessons of the playoff defeat and warned that the season should not be judged on those five games alone. Now he and his team will get the chance to put that learning into practice next time round.
Dinamo Riga – frustrated, but still hopeful
Results: Rock-bottom of the Western Conference, and never in serious contention for a playoff place, this was another frustrating season for the Latvians.
Summary: Without a big budget, Dinamo did well to hold onto many of its stronger players from the previous season but found it tough to add to its roster. With Arena Riga in use for Olympic Qualifiers in early September, the team also began with a tough road trip: six games in the Eastern Conference, many against strong opposition. That yielded just one point from a shoot-out loss in Ufa, piling up the pressure from the start.
It wasn’t that any individual result was particularly poor. Instead, Dinamo suffered a string of narrow losses, typified by a four-game series of shoot-out losses in October that left head coach Normands Sejujs suggesting it might have been less painful to take heavy defeats in each game rather than narrowly miss out time after time.
There were isolated bright spots. The arrival of Latvian legend Sandis Ozolins on the training staff coincided with an upturn in form in November. In December, two games played in Tallinn brought sell-out crowds to a new destination for the KHL. Overall, though, this was a season of struggle and defeat in Beijing on Jan. 16 saw Dinamo’s playoff hopes officially come to an end. Too many established players – Miks Indrasis, Mikelis Redlihs, Tim Sestito – saw their production fall away this season compared with last and the end result was inevitable.
What’s next: With one of the smaller budgets in the KHL, and with few young players making much of an impact in 2016-17, it’s hard to see where an improvement in Dinamo’s fortunes would come. However, as Sejujs pointed out, so many narrow losses could have been different if the team had been better at taking the chances it created. A handful of extra goals – well within the reach of several of Riga’s players – could have transformed last season from failure into a genuine playoff bid and, therefore, could make next season more successful.
Jokerit Helsinki – Finns in search of consistency
Results: Throughout the season Jukki Jalonen’s team faced a battle to secure a playoff place. In the final stages of the regular campaign, the Finns booked their spot but suffered a 0-4 loss against CSKA Moscow in the first round of post-season.
Summary: Not for the first time, Jokerit had to cope with the departure of its leading scorer. Brandon Kozun swapped Helsinki for Yaroslavl, blunting the team’s offense. It was a loss comparable to the departure of the Lo-Ko-Mo line that powered the Finns in their first KHL season, but this time it was compounded by the departure of head coach Erkka Westerlund.
Jalonen came in, and presided over a frustrating campaign. Jokerit rarely looked capable of stringing together a winning run and, aside from the impressive 48-point haul from Danish forward Peter Regin, did not have the kind of individual performers who could turn tight games around. Summer signing Brian O’Neill did a decent job in support of Regin; the American put up 36 points in his first KHL campaign.
There were some memorable individual results along the way – most notably a 6-3 win at CSKA in October. But, in keeping with the season’s overall inconsistency, that game was preceded by a 0-6 reverse in St. Petersburg.
The playoff series against CSKA was, in many ways, closer than the scoreline suggested. Jokerit was close in every game, but not close enough to win one. That, in a nutshell, was the story of a transitional season in Helsinki.
What’s next: Jalonen is set to remain behind the bench, Jokerit has scotched suggestions that it might drop out of the KHL, and fans in Finland will be hoping for a more consistent performance next time. In the longer term, confirmation that Jokerit will remain in the KHL for at least the next five seasons should help the club lay the foundations for a competitive roster in years to come.
Medvescak Zagreb – transfer turmoil undermines Dwyer
Results: Medvescak came into the season hoping that a strong team identity and passionate home support could help it back into the playoffs. Instead, it finished the campaign with just 14 players dressed for a game against Slovan Bratislava and ended up well outside the top eight.
Summary: Another team on a tight budget, Medvescak’s problems came in the trade market. As soon as a player put together a bit of form, it seemed, another club made an offer that the Zagreb team could not refuse. Thus, starting goalie Danny Taylor went to Sibir following Alexander Salak’s injury, forward Gilbert Brule headed to Neftekhimik to join up with Andrei Nazarov and, by the end of the season, even head coach Gordie Dwyer was head-hunted by Ambri-Piotta in the Swiss League.
Against that background of constant change, Medvescak gave ice time to five goalies, 10 D-men and 20 forwards – 35 players in total. Only seven of them – Mark Katic, Goran Bezina, Blake Parlett and Thomas Larkin on defense, Francis Pare, Alexandre Giroux and Mike Glumac on offense – appeared in more than 50 games. Consistency was hard to come by, and results reflected that. There were good days – wins over SKA and Magnitogorsk – but there were also some nightmares. Six-goal hidings against CSKA and Metallurg highlighted the gap between the top of the league and the outsiders, but a 3-7 reverse at fellow struggler Severstal was especially hard to take.
Dwyer, one of the youngest coaches in the game at just 39, worked hard to build a team in a North American image and succeeded in making Medvescak a highly distinctive outfit in the KHL. But, with leading players regularly allowed to leave the club, it proved impossible for him to mold that into a winning roster.
What’s next: After four seasons in the KHL, Medvescak announced last month that it had successfully applied to compete in next season’s EBEL, an Autrian-based cross-border league. The club’s management suggested that the financial strains of continuing in the KHL would be too much unless more sponsors came forward. A definitive answer on the club’s future is expected when next season’s clubs are confirmed in the coming weeks.
SKA St. Petersburg – imperious and victorious
Results: Lifting the Gagarin Cup, setting new records and staking a claim to be regarded as the top KHL team of the past three seasons – this campaign could hardly have gone better for SKA. And, along the way, head coach Oleg Znarok built a roster around Russian talent that can help him in his role as national team supremo.
Summary: The arrival of Znarok in St. Petersburg was both logical and surprising. Logical, in that SKA has the budget and the ambition that requires coaching staff of the highest possible caliber, and Znarok’s proven record at club and international level fits that bill. Surprising, in that Znarok’s post as head coach of Team Russia has been seen as a full-time role since Vyacheslav Bykov left the job in 2011. Could Znarok successfully serve two masters?
The first test came in September, when Russia went to the World Cup of Hockey. SKA barely flinched, blazing through the month with just two losses in 11 games under the stewardship of Pyotr Vorobyov, the veteran former Lokomotiv head coach. Pauses for other international competitions were similarly smooth. SKA kept on winning, and kept on piling up the goals. In total, the team scored 249 in the regular season, setting a new KHL record. No other team topped 200.
Ilya Kovalchuk and summer signing Pavel Datsyuk played a big role in that, bringing a touch of magic to the team’s offense, but scoring power came all over. The bright partnership between Vadim Shipachyov, Evgeny Dadonov and Nikita Gusev matured and promises to do some serious damage for SKA and for Russia in future seasons. In goal, Igor Shestyorkin set a club record of 272 minutes without allowing a goal as he came of age.
Post-season, SKA remained imperious. The Gagarin Cup was won with just two games lost, making for the quickest post-season campaign in KHL history. Even the absence of Datsyuk and Vyacheslav Voynov, two players with Stanley Cup-winning experience, had little impact on the team’s progress. That Shipachyov line was irresistible, Patrik Hersley provided some handy scoring on defense and, when the need arose, the likes of Dinar Khafizullin and Alexander Barabanov proved to be unlikely heroes.
What next: Winning is hard, defending the crown is harder. SKA will be aware that last season saw almost everything go right. But, with a powerful roster and great strength in depth, plus a coaching staff that knows how to get the maximum from those enviable resources, this is a club that is set up for success. If anyone can combine the pressures of an Olympic year and a Gagarin Cup defense, Oleg Znarok is likely to be that man.
Slovan Bratislava – injury woe slows Riha’s progress
Results: Milos Riha’s magic touch could not lift Slovan into the playoff places this season as a catastrophic series of injuries slowed the Slovaks’ progress.
Summary: The summer trades were not kind to Slovan. Key players such as Cam Barker, Lukas Kaspar and Lubo Visnovsky left the club, with the latter calling time on his illustrious career. Jeff Taffe, an experienced American who had impressed at Neftekhimik, did his best to replace Kaspar’s goals and delivered 43 points, but the team would inevitably suffer due to a loss of leading players. Then injuries began to chip away at the roster: after a 4-2 defeat at CSKA in October, Riha lamented that his team flew to Moscow with 10 first-choice players injured. Efforts to patch up the squad didn’t work out: the signings of Filip Novak and Tomas Kopetsky looked good on paper but contributed little on the ice.
Goaltending was another issue. Michael Garnett’s reliable presence between the piping was never fully replaced; both Justin Pogge and Barry Brust combined game-winning performances with nights to forget, making it hard for Slovan to generate a run of results. Brust didn’t help his cause by embarking on a war of words with Riha.
There were some bright spots. The emergence of young forward Michal Hlinka in the latter half of the season showed some promise for the future. He picked up the bulk of his 11 points in the final 20 games of the season after making the step up from playing in the Slovak League with Dulka Trencin and could be primed to make a more significant contribution next term. Overall, though, this was a frustrating season in Slovakia.
What’s next: The nucleus of a decent team can be found in Bratislava, but turning Slovan into playoff certainties rather than top-eight hopefuls will depend on getting more consistency. Better goaltending, and fewer injuries, could make the difference next season.
Spartak Moscow – great fans, poor results
Results: It was another season of struggle for the Red-and-Whites. Despite enthusiastic support, the Moscow team could not reach the playoffs and that failure cost German Titov his job as head coach.
Summary: If a single game was to sum up Spartak’s season, it would be the derby against CSKA in January. The Red-and-Whites went into the game on an eight-game losing streak, and prior to hosting their city rivals, footage emerged online of the team being angrily chastised in the locker room by supporters. That encounter ended with pledges to do better, to restore pride by winning the derby. Sadly, after a competitive opening, Spartak allowed CSKA to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the second period; the final score of 1-6 offered no comfort to the long-suffering supporters.
Hopes were high after last season’s transitional roster seemed to settle into something more permanent. But the team never really found a run of form – and got through a huge number of players along the way. In total, 35 skaters got on the ice in the KHL for Spartak last season, and too many made little impact. The likes of Tim Stapleton, a mid-season arrival, would have expected better than one goal and six assists in 22 games; Marcus Hogstrom’s spell in defense ended midway through the season with the Swede leaving the club after contributing just eight points in 30 games.
Instead, the highlights came off the ice: there was magnificent support, regardless of whether the team played at Luzhniki or the VTB Arena in Moscow. And, in an anniversary year for Russian hockey, the club’s retro game against Lokomotiv on December 22 was among the brightest events of the season: a festival of nostalgia in the stands and a 2-1 victory on the ice.
What’s next: After German Titov left the club, Alexei Yarushkin took over as acting head coach until the end of the season. But, on April 20, Vadim Yepanchintsev returned to the club as head coach. The former Russian international forward played for Spartak from 1993-97, and his coaching career includes spells with the Red-and-Whites and Atlant. As assistant to Oleg Bratash, he helped Spartak’s juniors win the Kharlamov Cup. Now he’s back to try and bring success to the senior team.
The 2016-17 season was full of excitement from start to finish. It was the year when the KHL expanded into China, when Sergei Mozyakin smashed records on a regular basis, and when Team Russia opened its doors to a new generation of talented youngsters. In a three-part reflection of some of the highs of the ninth KHL campaign, we start with the opening months of the regular season:
August – Kornoukhov fired, Datsyuk arrives, Metallurg keeps winning
The season began in Magnitogorsk, where the Opening Cup was contested in traditional style between last year’s Gagarin Cup finalists. CSKA’s Dmitry Kugryshev got the first goal of the campaign, and finished with two on the night, but Metallurg skated to a 3-2 victory with Sergei Mozyakin getting the first goal of what would prove to be a record-breaking season.
Prior to the opening game, excitement ahead of the new season was growing all over the KHL. The return of Pavel Datsyuk after 14 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings was a thrill for SKA fans … and the Magic Man didn’t forget his roots in Yekaterinburg. On the eve of the new season he opened a new rink – described as a ‘temple of hockey’ – in his home town; the facility is already helping to develop future generations of Urals stars. On the ice, he wasted little time making an impact, with a goal just 30 seconds into his home debut in Petersburg as SKA crushed Salavat Yulaev 7-1.
August also saw the first coaching change of the season – and in record time. Avangard Omsk surprised everyone by replacing head coach Evgeny Kornoukhov before the action was even underway. Happiness at seeing the popular Fyodor Kanareikin back in the game after recovering from serious illness was tempered by concern that coaching was an ever-more precarious position – something that many other clubs would demonstrate as the season unfolded.
September – exploring new territory, breaking old records
The KHL explored a new frontier when Beijing’s Kunlun Red Star took to the ice for the first time. The Chinese capital, due to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, had never seen pro hockey prior to this season, but league newcomer Kunlun made an instant impact. The dress rehearsal, away to Amur, went well: Sean Collins got the first ever goal for the franchise; Tuukka Mantyla grabbed a last-minute winner. Then came the grand opening at Beijing’s LeSports Center, and a 6-3 win over Admiral. For the 8,000 or so fans, it was a game with a bit of everything – goals, drama, new heroes and, best of all, a home win. The big experiment of the season was off to a promising start.
From new faces to old favorites, Sergei Mozyakin scored the tying goal against Dinamo Minsk, helping Metallurg Magnitogorsk to a 5-4 victory on September 13. Nothing so unusual in that, but it was Mozyakin’s 429th career goal in Russian hockey, setting a new All-Time record. The previous record-holder, Boris Mikhailov, got his 428th goal in October 1980, five months before Mozyakin was born, and in a much-changed hockey environment his total had looked unbeatable in the modern era … until Metallurg’s captain emerged to claim the crown of Russia’s greatest goal machine.
September also saw international action. There was Olympic qualification in Minsk and Riga, but there was disappointment for the KHL countries involved. Belarus lost out to Slovenia – with the Balkan nation helped by Robert Sabolic, Ziga Jeglic and Jan Mursak on its path to a second successive games; Latvia was denied by Germany. Kazakhstan also came up short, missing out in Norway. In the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto, Oleg Znarok selected SKA’s Evgeny Dadonov, Pavel Datsyuk and Vadim Shipachyov, as well as CSKA’s Ivan Telegin. Other KHLers in the competition included Tomas Kundratek and Vladimir Sobotka (Czech Republic) and Mikko Koskinen (Finland). Russia lost out to Canada in the semi-final.
October – Yuen and Mozyakin score goals, Shestyorkin denies
There was more good news from Kunlun, where Zach Yuen became the first Chinese player to get among the scorers in the KHL. Red Star had used four Chinese-eligible players in the early stages of the season, giving priceless experience to young, local talent, and Yuen repaid that faith. The 23-year-old, a versatile player who can operate as a center or a D-man, got his first point of the season when he assisted on Max Warn’s game-winner at Spartak Moscow. Then he went one better, grabbing the only goal of the game against Amur on October 28 in Shanghai.
Sergei Mozyakin’s scoring feats were destined to be a recurring theme this season, and October saw him overtake Evgeny Korshkov as Metallurg’s record scorer. Korshkov spent 10 seasons in Magnitogorsk, and reached his tally of 421 in 2004; Mozyakin topped it in his fourth full season with Magnitka.
In St. Petersburg, there was another club record to celebrate when young goalie Igor Shestyorkin went 272 minutes and eight seconds without allowing a goal. Nikita Ustinenko of Dinamo Minsk ended the shut-out streak in the second period of SKA’s 6-2 home win on October 10; Shestyorkin, just 20, was barely half-an-hour away from breaking Alexei Murygin’s KHL record from last season.
November – Russia’s youngsters impress, SKA dominates
The focus switched to the international arena at the start of the month as Team Russia triumphed in the Karjala Cup. Oleg Znarok selected a young, experimental roster, allowing proven stars like Kovalchuk and Datsyuk to rest at home, and was rewarded with wins over Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Valery Nichushkin, recently returned to Russia after a spell with the Dallas Stars, was a key part of the offense, forging an effective partnership with his one-time schoolmate Anatoly Golyshev. On defense, Magnitogorsk’s Alexei Bereglazov translated his solid start to the domestic season into the international arena, while the young goaltending talents of Ilya Sorokin (CSKA) and Igor Shestyorkin (SKA) were solid between the piping.
Back in league action, SKA was in imperious form at the top of the table, and a 9-0 victory over Barys made it 15 wins on the spin. Ilya Kovalchuk chipped in with four points to reach 250 for the club. Elsewhere in the Western Conference, a lively battle for the playoff places was developing. Jokerit and Dynamo Moscow, two teams expected to be confidently plotting post-season campaigns, were struggling for consistency and got caught in a mid-table morass. Emerging from the pack, Vityaz, under the guidance of Valery Belov, was showing signs of making a serious bid for the top eight and reaching its first ever KHL playoff.
And that Mozyakin milestone for the month? November 19, and a hat-trick away to Spartak saw the master marksman become Magnitogorsk’s all-time record goalscorer.
The second half of the regular season brought more moments of history. Sergei Mozyakin set more individual scoring records, SKA set a new marker for team scoring. Chad Rau got the first ever winner in 3-on-3 overtime, while his Kunlun Red Star team qualified for the playoffs at the first attempt. Vityaz also reached its first playoff in the KHL era, ending a nine-year wait. And a new-look All-Star Game delivered a brand-new star in the form of 18-year-old Andrei Altybarmakyan.
December – Kareyev denies, Kaprizov dazzles
Andrei Kareyev isn’t a household name, but there’s evidence to suggest that the young goalie might be soon. On December 9, he made 52 saves for Metallurg Novokuznetsk against Avangard, setting a new KHL record. It wasn’t enough to claim the win, though: the visitor took the verdict in a shoot-out after a 2-2 tie.
A rule change introduced on December 13 meant that tied games would be settled by a period of 3-on-3 overtime, mirroring amendments made by the NHL and the IIHF for tournament play. Four days later, Chad Rau claimed a small piece of history by grabbing the first game-winner in that format for Kunlun Red Star, snapping a 3-3 tie with Avtomobilist. Nigel Dawes had a memorable Christmas, celebrating December 25 with a hat-trick as Barys defeated Magnitka 5-3. His treble was the eighth of his KHL career and made him the leading scorer of hat-tricks in the league’s history. Dawes also became the highest scoring import in the KHL earlier in the season, overtaking clubmate Brandon Bochenski.
Elsewhere, the World Junior Championship got underway in Canada … and Kirill Kaprizov was one of the brightest stars on display. The Salavat Yulaev youngster cemented his burgeoning reputation with a powerful performance on the international stage. He started with a goal and an assist in Russia’s 3-5 loss against Canada, and kept on scoring to finish with 9 goals and 3 assists from seven games as Russia took bronze. His clubmate Mikhail Vorobyov weighed in with 10 assists in the tournament
January – Altybarmakyan shines among the stars
Salavat Yulaev’s slump became the talking point of the New Year. Expectations were high in Ufa, especially after the success of the team’s juniors in the World Championship. But 2017 was hardly a happy new year for the club as a long losing streak plunged its playoff prospects into doubt. But there were happier times in the capital of Bashkiria when the 2017 All-Star Game came to town. This year’s event had a new format, with showcase games featuring the best players from Russia’s Youth, Women’s and Sledge Hockey teams as well as the KHL. The main event was also a bit different – instead of a head-to-head clash between the Eastern and Western Conferences, the climax was a four-team showdown between teams representing the KHL’s four divisions. Each team was supplemented by a rising star selected from the Junior All-Star Game earlier that week.
Victory went to the Chernyshev Division, but the game-winning hero was a surprise. Young Andrei Altybarmakyan made the most of his wild-card pick with the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory over the Tarasov Division.
In the championship, the race for the regular season title was down to a two-way fight between SKA and CSKA, while Metallurg Magnitogorsk was out in front in the East. The playoff battle was intriguing. In the East, newcomer Kunlun Red Star was fighting it out with Sibir, Neftekhimik and Admiral, while the West saw Vityaz continue to press the likes of Jokerit and HC Sochi.
February – Mozyakin tops the scoring, Kunlun and Vityaz celebrate playoff spots
History was made at both ends of the KHL map as the regular season came to a thrilling close. First, Vityaz reached the playoffs for the first time ever, claiming seventh place in the West and helping to condemn HC Sochi to an early finish for the first time since the Black Sea team joined the league in 2014. In the East, though, the battle went to the final day as Admiral, Sibir and Kunlun jousted over two remaining spots after Salavat Yulaev rallied to win its final two games and end its miserable run of form.
Ninth-placed Sibir was first up, needing a regulation-time win at Avtomobilist to put the pressure on its rivals. Andrei Skabelka’s team had overcome serious injury problems to remain in contention, and led 1-0 thanks to a second-period goal from Yegor Milovzorov. But a goalie error in the third period handed Avto a tying goal and the shoot-out win wasn’t enough. That meant that Kunlun already knew it was safe, despite a 2-1 loss at Dynamo Moscow. Admiral won 3-1 at Vityaz to take seventh place.
The final week also brought drama at the top of the table, where CSKA overhauled a three-point deficit to claim the regular season crown for the third season running – but by the narrowest of margins. The Muscovites finished level with SKA on 131 points, taking top spot by virtue of a greater number of victories in regulation. CSKA’s reward was a first-round playoff series against Jokerit, while SKA would face Vityaz.
Among the individual stats, the race between Sergei Mozyakin and Ilya Kovalchuk to top the scoring charts was the key battle. Mozyakin came out on top, with 85 points (48+37) establishing a new KHL best. He improved on Steve Moses’ 36 goals for Jokerit in 2014-15 and Alexander Radulov’s 80 points for Salavat Yulaev in 2010-11. But he finished the season tantalizingly short of next big milestone: his career points tally was 999 ahead of the playoff series against Kunlun. Kovalchuk could not overtake his rival, but his 78-point haul still helped SKA to 249 goals in regular season – another KHL scoring record.
Uniquely, this year there wasn’t a single series that went to game seven … but don’t go thinking anyone found progress easy. Even where teams swept their series, the individual games tended to be hard fought. And, in a season studded with scoring records, it’s no surprise that the 2017 playoffs continued to set new marks for goals and assists along the way.
Round one – Mozyakin’s millennium, playoffs in China and bragging rights for Ak Bars
At first glance, there were few surprises at this stage. Of the eight series across two Conferences, only one – Barys’ victory over Traktor – overturned the end-of-season rankings. But there was still plenty to note.
In the Eastern Conference, playoff hockey went to China for the first time ever as Kunlun Red Star faced defending champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Magnitka, as expected, prevailed, but the series produced one of the goals of the season from Kunlun’s Linus Videll and a memorable victory for the Chinese team in Game Four. That 3-1 win on February 28 was a real highlight for the league’s newcomer.
Beijing was also the venue for one of Sergei Mozyakin’s most memorable achievements of a record-laden campaign. His goal in the 39th minute of Magnitka’s 3-2 win on February 26 brought up his 1,000th career point in Russian domestic hockey, a mark never before reached by any player in Soviet or post-Soviet times. Typically, it didn’t take long for the master marksman to start work on his second millennium, assisting on Danis Zaripov’s game-winner.
Elsewhere in the East, the ‘Green Derby’ between Ak Bars and Salavat Yulaev went decisively in favor of the team from Kazan. The 4-1 series sweep led to the dismissal of Salavat head coach Igor Zakharkin. Admiral took two games from Avangard before going out, while fifth seed Barys surprised four-placed Traktor in six games.
In the West, it was all about overtime. Regular season champion CSKA might have swept Jokerit, but the Finns took three of the four games to extras without managing to force a victory. Dynamo Moscow beat Torpedo 4-1, but the series featured five additional periods. Two of those came in game one before Maxim Karpov won it; game five was the only one settled in 60 minutes. Life was less stressful for SKA, which swept playoff debutant Vityaz, and Lokomotiv, which dropped just one game against Dinamo Minsk.
Round two – hat-trick kings, red line kings and CSKA hitting the buffers
The match-up between CSKA and Lokomotiv provided the shock of the playoffs. The Army Men, fresh from a third straight regular season title, were favorites to overcome a Loko team that had rather more potential than experience. But Alexei Kudashov’s team rose to the challenge to win it in six. The key moment came in Game Four. CSKA was 2-1 up in the series and tied at 1-1 in Yaroslavl as the game went into the third period. Then Loko blasted home four unanswered goals, winning 5-1 and decisively tipping the momentum of the series.
The other pairing in the West saw SKA and Dynamo Moscow come together for the fifth time in six seasons. At the start of that run, Dynamo had the edge, winning in 2012 and 2013 on the way to lifting the cup; subsequently, it’s been the Petersburg team that has dominated. When Maxim Karpov hit an overtime winner for the Blue-and-Whites in Game One, some fans recalled Dynamo’s 2012 triumph. Then, Denis Mosalyov completed a hat-trick in overtime; this time Karpov repeated the trick. But SKA was in no mood to repeat history, powering through the next four games to progress. Even the loss of Pavel Datsyuk, who suffered the first game misconduct of his career and then picked up an injury that ruled him out of the rest of the campaign, could not halt Oleg Znarok’s progress against his former club. For Dynamo, the only small consolation was the fame of defenseman Andrei Kuteikin, who twice scored from the red line in this series after achieving a similar feat against Torpedo in round one. But SKA was able to draw a red line through its rival’s hopes once again.
In the East, Danis Zaripov was the main man for Metallurg. He scored back-to-back hat-tricks in games two and three of the series against Barys, helping Magnitka to a sweep. Moreover, he claimed the title of ‘Hat-trick king’, the first man to get three post-season trebles in the KHL. D-man Chris Lee also set a new record, getting the highest number of playoff assists from a blue liner with two more series to come.
Also in the East, Ak Bars got the better of Avangard in six games. That ensured a celebration for Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, as the head coach of the Kazan team marked his 1,000th game behind the bench in Russian hockey with victory. Progress wasn’t always assured: Ak Bars’ 3-1 win in Game Four was marked by cruel deflections that beat Avangard goalie Dominik Furch, but it was good enough to deflate a potential fight-back in Omsk and ultimately send Ak Bars to a showdown with Metallurg in the Eastern Conference Final.
Conference Finals – squeaky sweeps and an infamous water bottle
By this time in the season, it’s fair to expect tight series. With the four strongest teams duking it out, a game seven should be pretty much a lock in one or other match-up. Not this time. Neither series exactly played out like a sweep, but both of them ended up 4-0.
SKA delivered a masterclass in finding ways to win as it ended Lokomotiv’s run. Down 2-4 in game one, with five minutes left to play, the Petersburg team rallied to win it in overtime. Patrik Hersley and Nikita Gusev were inspired in that one. Loko took the lead again in Game Two, only to fluff its lines and suffer a 1-4 loss. Then came the bottle of water. Game Three in Yaroslavl saw Loko in front thanks to a Pavel Kraskovsky goal. With 10 minutes left, Kudashov was ejected from the game for throwing a bottle from the bench. SKA converted the power play, took it to overtime and Alexander Barabanov popped up to win it with his first goal in 38 games. Lokomotiv could be forgiven for feeling the fates were conspiring. SKA got another 2-1 victory in Game Four and, for the first time in the series, did not fall behind at any point in the game. The stats show a 4-0 outcome, but it’s not just in Yaroslavl that many regard it as the squeakiest sweep possible.
In the East, Metallurg had a similar run of tight games to oust Ak Bars. Along the way, Danis Zaripov tormented his former team to take his goal tally to 15 and match Evgeny Dadonov’s KHL playoff record. But the 4-0 stat hides a double-overtime win in Game One, thanks to Sergei Mozyakin’s 86th-minute goal. Zaripov got his second of the series in the next one, but it took 30 saves from Vasily Koshechkin to secure a 2-0 victory. Then it was off to Kazan where Zaripov made it four goals in three games to swing this one around in the last four minutes: down 1-2, Danis’ double handed Metallurg a 3-2 margin. Only in Game Four did Ak Bars fade. Two Mozyakin assists helped Magnitka jump into a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes and not even a response from Jiri Sekac could halt the visitor Mozyakin scored again, and Denis Platonov wrapped it up to set up a long break before a final series to savor – Metallurg vs SKA.
The Gagarin Cup Final – forwards win games, defences win championships
Ahead of this showdown, the talk was all about the forwards. Would Mozyakin, Zaripov and Kovar continue their devastating form for Metallurg? How much damage could Gusev, Dadonov and Shipachyov do for SKA? Would defensemen on both sides end up suffering sleepless nights against such potent offenses?
Game One seemed to justify the assumption that this would be a scorers’ final. SKA edged it 5-4, two goals from Dadonov bettered one from Mozyakin. The big guns seemed to be firing. Magnitka replied at once, winning 3-1 to level the scores before the game moved to St. Petersburg and the ding-dong battle seemed to be shaping up nicely. But one of the truisms of hockey is that it’s defences that win cups. Now SKA’s defense stepped up its game and proved that point. Lockdown. Game Three, played on Cosmonaut’s Day, saw the Mozyakin line fail to launch. It took 92 minutes to separate the teams, but the trio produced just three shots on goal between them. SKA’s victory was delayed by Vasily Koshechkin, who made 58 saves before Dadonov beat him in double overtime. Game Four was similar; the hot shots mustered just four attempts between them as SKA peppered Koshechkin with 50 more efforts. Dinar Khafizullin was the unlikely home hero with two goals, SKA won it 3-2 to take a grip on the series.
That grip came in the form of a vice that strangled the Metallurg forwards. The defending champion was unable to unleash its formidable scoring power until it was too late and Magnitka was chasing Game Five – and the series, in the final stanza. This time SKA had clawed back a 0-2 deficit and briefly led 4-2. Metallurg turned on the style in the third, clawing a goal back immediately through Yaroslav Kosov and laying siege to Mikko Koskinen’s net. The first line was back in business – 13 shots between them, seven for Zaripov alone – but the goals did not come. Oskar Osala was millimeters away from salvaging overtime as his shot rolled along the goal line before bouncing to safety off a post; seconds later Sergei Plotnikov’s empty-net goal ended the season. Metallurg claimed a share of two scoring records – Zaripov’s 15 goals tied Dadonov’s mark from 2015, Lee’s 20 assists matched Mozyakin’s tally in 2014 – but SKA won 5-3 on the day, 4-1 overall, and lifted its second Gagarin Cup. Incredibly, Oleg Znarok’s team dropped just two games on the way to glory. The bar for next season has been set high.
Game 1 - Metallurg v SKA 4-5 - Saturday, April 08, 2017
This year’s Gagarin Cup Final promised goals, action and controversy … and game one of the series delivered in style. A high-scoring, hard-fought clash between two evenly-matched rivals eventually ended in SKA’s favor, but only after each team saw a player ejected from the game in a true battle in Magnitogorsk.
Evgeny Dadonov, SKA’s leading scorer when it won the cup in 2015, was the hero with two markers – including the game winner – as the visitor edged a hugely competitive encounter by the odd goal in nine.
The winner came in the 57th minute thanks to a moment of individual magic. Metallurg sought to clear its lines and played the puck into center ice. Dadonov collected it on his own blue line, and decided to take matters into his own hands. Embarking on a solo rush, he powered through the neutral zone, evaded the attentions of the home D-men waiting on the blue line and advanced to beat Vasily Koshechkin up close. That took SKA to 5-3, the first time either team had enjoyed a two-goal advantage, and not even a late strike from Magnitogorsk’s Tomas Filippi could change the script.
It was the decisive moment in a game full of compelling incident. An evenly-matched opening period hinged – as many expected in this series – on a power play goal. In the 15th minute, Jan Kovar was called for hooking. It seemed a somewhat careless infringement, given that Magnitka was on the attack at the time, and the consequences were still more severe. SKA, enjoying its first opportunity to flex its formidable muscles on the power play, duly converted the opportunity. D-to-D play on the blue line saw Patrik Hersley feed Anton Belov for a slap shot; Koshechkin had the answer to that one, but could not stop Evgeny Ketov stuffing home the rebound.
Metallurg quickly got a chance to respond in kind when Ilya Kablukov was cited for tripping seconds after SKA took the lead. The visitor’s PK, though, has been the strongest in post-season, and made it hard for the home offense to camp down in the SKA end. Viktor Antipin had the best chance, given space to get off a shot from close range, but he couldn’t find the net.
The second stanza, though, saw Magnitka find its scoring touch. Two goals in 81 seconds at the start of the middle session turned the game around. Evgeny Timkin, whose two goals in Moscow decided the destiny of last year’s final, tied the game on 21:50 when he got his stick to Yaroslav Kosov’s low shot and deflected the puck beyond Igor Shestyorkin. Then, on 23:11, Sergei Mozyakin pounced on a defensive error to put the home team in front for the first time. If there’s any player in this league who shouldn’t be presented with the puck in front of goal, it’s Mozyakin; when Ilya Kovalchuk’s wayward pass offered him the gift, the captain wasted no time in unwrapping it.
But Metallurg soon ran into new problems. Oskar Osala was ejected from the game for a high hit on Nikolai Prokhorkin, and after successfully killing the major penalty, Magnitka’s tiring defense coughed up possession in center ice and Nikita Gusev’s immaculate feed set Dadonov away to tie the game. Then, just Metallurg, SKA produced a quick-fire second goal to regain the lead. Prokhorkin shrugged off the effects of Osala’s hit to wrestle a chance on the slot; the video official found no evidence of goalie interference and the Army Men were back in front.
The game continued to ebb and flow; now it was SKA’s turn to suffer an ejection as Kovalchuk was penalized for a hit to Kovar’s head. Now the home power play did its thing, pulling together a slick combination to give Antipin the chance to tie the scores just before the second intermission.
SKA survived the rest of that penalty at the start of the third, and play became more cagey as both teams recognized the high price of any further errors. But the visitor forged ahead once again on 55 minutes through Hersley. The Swedish defenseman continued his habit of grabbing clutch goals in this post season with a shot so powerful that it went through the goal netting. A check on the video confirmed the goal, and with five to play, SKA was back in front. Dadonov then added his decisive contribution and that late Filippi strike put Magnitka back in contention in the final seconds, but SKA stayed in front to claim the early initiative in this series.
For Metallurg, this is familiar territory: last season the Steelmen began the final series by conceding five goals and suffering defeat. But on that occasion, Magnitka faced a CSKA team tasting the Gagarin Cup Final, and all its attendant pressures, for the first time.
Game 2 - Metallurg v SKA 5-3 - Monday, April 10, 2017
Vladislav Kaletnik isn’t one of the most feared goalscorers at Metallurg. The 22-year-old is still learning his trade, and his marker in a 5-3 victory over Kunlun Red Star back in February was his first ever playoff goal in the KHL. But his short-handed effort tonight, late in the second period, upstaged the more established marksmen in game two of the Gagarin Cup Final, leading Magnitka to a narrow victory and tying the series at 1-1. It all happened in the 38th minute. The home team, killing a penalty, saw a chance to counter attack. Oskar Osala led the rush, but failed to really get hold of his shot. Igor Shestyorkin pushed the puck away with his pads, only for Vladislav Kaletnik to race in and put away the rebound, snapping a 1-1 tie and punishing SKA for its failure to convert several earlier chances. Tommi Santala’s empty-net goal put the seal of Metallurg’s win, and sets up Wednesday’s trip to St. Petersburg nicely.
SKA, though, will be wondering how it failed to put the game beyond reach in the first period. The visitor dominated the shot count throughout, and were especially impressive in the opening stanza when it allowed just two attempts on its own net. However, Jan Kovar ensured that one of them counted, opening the scoring with a power play goal in the eighth minute, against the run of play.
SKA responded quickly. In the 12th minute, Vadim Shipachyov was allowed to lurk unmolested at the back door. Nikita Gusev found him, and the forward delivered a confident finish for the second power play goal of the game. Metallurg, angry at what it felt to be a harsh call against Sergei Mozyakin for the initial penalty, found itself a man down again almost immediately and was left clinging on desperately as the formidable SKA power play cruised through the gears once again. Shipachyov’s long pass picked out Gusev for a shot that flashed into the side netting. Ilya Kovalchuk pinged one off the crossbar with Vasily Koshechkin grasping at thin air. Anton Belov saw his shot hit the inside of the post and sit, tantalizingly, in the crease before Viktor Antipin reacted to sweep it away from danger. Like a prize fighter on the receiving end of a haymaker, Metallurg rocked and reeled – but refused to go down.
The balance of play shifted in the middle session. SKA was still creating the greater number of chances, but the difference was no longer overwhelming. Instead, Magnitka’s offense was beginning to ask some questions of its own. Mozyakin looked increasingly dangerous, Tomas Filippi had a couple of testing chances and, for the first time in the game, the teams were trading blows more or less evenly. A penalty on Evgeny Timkin seemed to give SKA the initiative, but Kaletnik’s goal took the game in the opposite direction.
Now Metallurg began to believe it could win, despite the fearsome fusillade that continued at the other end. Timkin came out of the sin bin and almost scored immediately. Mozyakin’s skill carved out a chance early in the third only for Patrik Hersley to overpower the forward at the last moment. But SKA was equally determined: Kovalchuk tested Koshechkin after a slip from Alexei Bereglazov and steadily the pressure grew as the final stanza wore on. Metallurg was pushed deeper and deeper, the puck rarely made it into SKA territory. Danis Zaripov was reduced to trying his luck from the red line as the intensity of the visiting offense grew with every shift. But a combination of bodies on the line in defense and alert goaltending from Koshechkin kept SKA at bay. The home goalie had 43 saves; the visiting offense clocked an incredible 103 attempts, of which 37 were blocked by the Metallurg defense. Off came Shestyorkin in a last bid to conjure something from the game, but the gamble failed. Timkin burst clear down the left flank, only to shoot wide of the empty net. The puck swung around the boards for Santala and the Finn – who began the day with the unwelcome news that he would be fined after the disciplinary panel handed him a 5+20 for an incident in Saturday’s game – ended the game by sending it back into the empty net.
Game 3 - SKA v Metallurg 2-1 OT - Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Hockey should be a simple game. Get pucks to the net, work the opposition goalie, and eventually, results will come. But this series is starting to suggest that the usual indicators may not always be reliable. After a game two loss in which it dominated the attacking play, SKA encountered similar problems here in St. Petersburg. The shots piled up, the opportunities were created … but the goals were hard to come by.
As the race for the Gagarin Cup marked Cosmonauts’ Day – the 56th anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s historic trip into orbit – the teams produced a game longer than the 65 minutes he spent in orbit around the Earth. Indeed, they threatened to rival the 108-minute journey of Vostok-1 from launch to landing before SKA finally grabbed its winner. By the time Evgeny Dadonov settled the outcome in the 93rd minute, the home team had fired in 60 shots on Vasily Koshechkin’s net. For the second game in a row, SKA managed 100 attempts on goal in total, but found Koshechkin and his colleagues in obdurate mood.
The winning goal was another triumph for the Dadonov-Shipachyov-Gusev line. Vadim Shipachyov fed Nikita Gusev in center ice and for a moment it seemed that Gusev might be about to do it all on his own as he tormented Metallurg’s tiring defense. Eventually he was steered away from the net, but not before he could get the puck to Dadonov with a clear shooting lane from the right. In came the shot, rattling around off post and bar enough to give Metallurg hope of an appeal to the video referee; victory was confirmed from the sidelines and another epic battle between these teams was over at last.
Much like Monday’s game, this one started with a surge towards Koshechkin in the Metallurg net. Gusev was a constant menace early on, buzzing around Magnitka’s zone and making things happen. It was his pass from beyond the goal line that teed up Anton Belov for a shot that Koshechkin barely managed to push past the far post; it was his rush that almost presented Shipachyov with a good look at Koshechkin. Metallurg hit penalty trouble, Gusev tested the goalie again late on. It was turning into a one-sided encounter.
For all SKA’s creativity, though, the opening goal came from a good old-fashioned hammer blow. Andrei Zubarev collected the puck in center ice, advanced to the red line and let fly with a long-range effort that kept low beneath the leap of a team-mate and surprised Koshechkin. For SKA, which twice conceded goals from the red line to Dynamo’s Andrei Kuteikin earlier in the playoffs, it was an unexpected way to take a deserved lead.
Metallurg, heavily outshot in the first half of the game, gradually began to pose more of a threat. A penalty on Yegor Yakovlev in the 30th minute helped to shift the momentum and the play was more even as the second period drew to a close. The equalizer came just six seconds before the intermission. Magnitka rolled forward and produced a slick bit of tic-tac-toe: Vladislav Kaletnik to Chris Lee, then a pass fizzing across the face of goal to Denis Kazionov at the back door.
The third period reverted to the initial script, with SKA having more of the play and Metallurg relying on counter attacks to keep Mikko Koskinen honest on his return to the starting line-up. The best chance to win it in regulation was also the last. Alexander Barabanov found himself all alone in front of the net, but his attempt to fire in a backhand was hurried and the puck went wide of the target. Overtime followed. The extras saw two big chances for Magnitka, both coming when a well-placed pass released a forward for a duel with Koskinen. The first opportunity, on 63 minutes, went to Vladislav Kaletnik, but Monday’s game winner shot wide of the mark. The next, 10 minutes later, fell to Sergei Mozyakin, but for once his scoring touch deserted him as Patrik Hersley got back to make the block. However, the bulk of the scoring chances were still coming at the other end, and ultimately that made the difference as Dadonov grabbed his third goal in three games to give SKA the initiative.
Game 4 - SKA v Metallurg 3-2 - Friday, April 14, 2017
A final-period fightback gave SKA its third victory in this series – and means Metallurg must win on home ice on Sunday if it is to continue its defense of the Gagarin Cup. For once, SKA’s stellar offense was subdued; instead Dinar Khafizullin was the unlikely hero, snaffling up the game-winning goal in the 53rd minute. The defenseman, who earlier tied the game at 1-1 with a similar finish, reacted quickly after Patrik Hersley’s slap shot smashed into Vasily Koshechkin’s helmet. The goalie lay sprawled on the ice as Khafizullin stuffed home the rebound from close range. But Metallurg’s disappointment was combined with a sense of grievance. First, the visiting team was unhappy that play continued with its goalie taken out of the game by a powerful blow to the head. And, moments earlier, Magnitka protested loudly at an interference call against Danis Zaripov after a collision on the edge of the SKA zone that abruptly halted a promising counter-attack for Jan Kovar.
Not that Khafizullin or SKA were greatly concerned about any protests. The defenseman’s second goal of the game was only his sixth game-winner in 377 career KHL outings and saw him double his career playoff tally in this clash. Previously the 28-year-old had scored the opener in game four of the Conference Final against Lokomotiv and claimed one goal in last year’s post season. Not for the first time, the big occasion calls for an unexpected hero to emerge and grab a vital marker, and Khafizullin joins Alexander Barabanov on SKA’s list of post season game winners with a modest track record of scoring goals.
The game started with a bang. Viktor Antipin put Metallurg in front after just 27 seconds, claiming the fastest ever goal in a Gagarin Cup Final game. SKA won the opening face-off, but little else went right for the host as Magnitka gained possession and Sergei Mozyakin threw a peach of a pass off the boards to the unmarked Antipin in the right-hand face-off circle. A backhand shot across the face of Mikko Koskinen found the top corner, and Metallurg had exactly the start it needed. But, much like games two and three of this series, SKA was only interested in offense. The game was played almost exclusively around Koshechkin’s net and in the first period alone the visiting goalie made 23 saves. That was enough to preserve Metallurg’s lead into the first intermission, but early in the middle stanza the home team got the breakthrough it needed to tie the game.
Defenseman Khafizullin was the scorer, claiming only his second post-season marker when he reacted fastest to the rebound after Vadim Shipachyov’s shot bounced back into play from Koshechkin’s pads. The goal was as much a tribute to SKA’s on-going pressure rather than any particularly brilliant play: a more alert Metallurg defense would surely not have allowed Khafizullin to get into such a dangerous position without far closer attention.
Encouraged, the home team continued to press. But it was Metallurg that struck the next blow with a devastating counter attack from Oskar Osala. The Finn showed great speed as he raced on to Tommi Santala’s pass and burned down the left with Alexander Khokhlachyov in his wake. Osala’s shot fizzed inside Koskinen’s near post, and Metallurg led once again.
The lead did not last long, though. Early in the final stanza, Andrei Zubarev tied the game at 2-2 – despite shattering his stick in the process. Nikolai Prokhorkin’s shot from the boards bounced a long way from goal off Koshechkin’s pads, and Zubarev got into a race with Metallurg’s Yaroslav Kosov to reach the rebound first. Zubarev’s slap shot connected with the puck and his opponent’s stick; the SKA forward’s own weapon snapped on impact, while the deflection sent his shot on an unpredictable trajectory that left the goalie out of position. The trajectory of this series, though, is starting to feel familiar. SKA’s previous Gagarin Cup triumph, two years ago, came in five games. Victory that time was sealed on the road in Kazan on a Sunday afternoon. This coming Sunday, SKA goes on the road to Magnitogorsk with the chance to repeat that success and join Metallurg, Ak Bars and Dynamo Moscow on two cup wins. However, two men in the SKA camp will also recall a famous occasion when a team blew a 3-1 lead in the Gagarin Cup final. Head coach Oleg Znarok and defenseman Anton Belov were on opposing sides in 2012 when Avangard looked to be in command of its series against Dynamo. But Belov suffered a suspension, the Omsk defense began to wobble, and Znarok led the Muscovites to a memorable victory thanks to a solitary Jakub Klepis goal in Siberia. The destiny of the cup in 2017 is yet to be decided.
Game 5 - Metallurg v SKA 3-5 - Sunday, April 16, 2017
SKA St. Petersburg wrapped up its second Gagarin Cup triumph in three seasons with a battling victory in game five in Magnitogorsk. Oleg Znarok’s team displayed the hallmarks of a true champion, battling back from 0-2 to wrest control of the game and complete the series in five. In contrast with SKA’s previous Gagarin Cup triumph in 2015, when the team went to Kazan and overwhelmed Ak Bars with a devastating first-period performance, this game was all about patience, belief and finding a way to retrieve a difficult situation.
Metallurg, knowing that only victory would prolong its defense of the title it won last season, produced a start that got the home fans believing that their hopes could be resurrected this Easter Sunday. In the third minute, Alexei Bereglazov’s shot was tipped beyond Mikko Koskinen by Sergei Mozyakin; only the post saved SKA. In the ninth minute, though, Oskar Osala would not be denied. He raced onto Tommi Santala’s pass, got away from Alexander Barabanov and shot from the face-off spot to beat Koskinen over the glove for a goal reminiscent of his marker in Metallurg’s 2-3 loss in Petersburg on Friday.
That was the only goal of the first period, but Viktor Antipin doubled the home lead early in the second when his shot from the left took a deflection off Yegor Rykov’s skate and beat Koskinen. In a series where two-goal leads have been scarce, Metallurg was looking good to win the game and take the action back to Petersburg.
The momentum changed fast. A penalty on Danis Zaripov saw SKA quickly convert its power play chance: Evgeny Dadonov rushed down the right, played the puck back into the center from the goalline and found Nikita Gusev perfectly placed to fire home a one-timer from between the hashmarks.
The fans who came to the game in referees’ uniforms with a SKA logo replacing the KHL’s crest would, no doubt, have continued to protest the perceived injustice of Zaripov’s latest penalty call. SKA, meanwhile, was inspired and went on to tie the game two minutes later. Alexander Barabanov got the goal, but it was all about Ilya Kovalchuk’s pass from behind the net. SKA’s captain picked up on a broken play in Metallurg’s zone and set off around the boards, but opted to pass early from the near post when he spotted Barabanov peeling into space right in front of Vasily Koshechkin’s net. Suddenly, the pattern of the game was transformed. Metallurg, having built itself a winning position, had to start afresh. SKA, facing a trip back to Petersburg, now saw its way clear to winning the cup on the night.
That pathway become even wider for the visitor in the 35th minute when Dadonov converted a two-on-two rush. Gusev fed Vadim Shipachyov, who brought the puck smoothly through center ice. Metallurg’s covering defensemen were caught out, unsure whether to block the shot or the pass, and ultimately failed to do either as Shipachyov’s perfectly-weighted pass picked out Dadonov for a one-timer that Koshechkin could do nothing with. Three goals in seven-and-a-half minutes had transformed the destiny of the game and the series.
Kovalchuk made it 4-2 just nine seconds into the final stanza. Patrik Hersley intercepted a pass out of Metallurg’s zone, advanced into an attacking position and fed Kovy for an emphatic finish. But Magnitka, rocked, was not done. Yaroslav Kosov made it 3-4 within a minute, collecting a loose puck after Artyom Zub collided with a linesman and advancing to find the bottom corner under pressure from Andrei Zubarev.
The final period was anxious; Metallurg fought hard, piling up the pressure and finishing with a 20-3 advantage on the shot count. But Koskinen was in unbeatable form, and kept his best save until last. With less than two minutes left, and Magnitka using six skaters, a rebound dropped for Osala on the slot. The Finn’s shot drew an instinctive reaction stop from his compatriot, and the puck rolled agonizingly alone the goal line before bouncing to safety off the post. That proved to be the last chance. Two time-outs later, SKA resumed, won a face-off at its own net and got the puck clear for Sergei Plotnikov to score an empty-netter. Koskinen still needed to complete his 42nd save of the night and deny Zaripov, but the 2017 Gagarin Cup had found its home.
SKA’s victory means that the Petersburg club is the fourth to lift the Gagarin Cup twice, joining Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Ak Bars and Dynamo Moscow. Head coach Znarok becomes the first coach to win it three times, having twice claimed the top prize in the capital. The 4-1 margin in the final series matches the best ever, twice achieved by Vyacheslav Bykov as head coach of Salavat Yulaev (2011) and SKA (2015). Like Bykov, Znarok has also now won the cup while combining his club duties with taking charge of Team Russia.
Not many teams could shrug off the absence of Stanley Cup-winning duo Slava Voynov and Pavel Datsyuk, but the power and depth of SKA’s roster means Oleg Znarok’s team has progressed serenely despite injuries to two star players. There’s scoring power all over the ice here, with any line capable of conjuring up a game-changing moment, and evidence of players getting hot at just the right time as we reach the sharp end of the season. Here’s a guide to the roster for the Western Conference representatives in the 2017 Gagarin Cup final.
Goalies
In the regular season, Mikko Koskinen and youngster Igor Shestyorkin largely shared goaltending duties, with the 21-year-old Russian enjoying an impressive campaign. In post-season, though, the experienced Finn took top billing … until suffering an injury during the Conference Final against Lokomotiv. Koskinen had his critics, allowing Dynamo’s Andrei Kuteikin to beat him from the red line twice in successive games raised eyebrows. But he also produced some stunning stops, with a memorable stick save against Loko looking like a lock for the save of the season. Shestyorkin, meanwhile, proved a more than able deputy as he backstopped SKA to victory in game four of the Conference Final and, if required, will only develop from the experience of playing in the biggest games of the season.
Defense
The absence of Slava Voynov, struggling with a long-term injury, hasn’t hampered SKA as much as might have been feared. Oleg Znarok’s team has been boosted by Patrik Hersley’s return to full fitness after a frustrating regular season and the Swede has responded with a career-best scoring haul in the playoffs. His 5+8 puts him level with Anton Belov on 13 points. Belov brings a wealth of experience of Gagarin Cup finals after playing at this stage for Avangard in 2012 and SKA in 2015. Elsewhere on the blue line, Maxim Chudinov is another high-profile absentee with the Russian international managing just one post-season outing, in a 2-3 overtime loss to Dynamo on March 8. There’s been plenty of uncompromising, stay-at-home defense work from Dinar Khafizullin, Yegor Yakovlev, Andrei Zubarev and Roman Rukavishnikov.
Offense
With Pavel Datsyuk injured, it’s fallen to the Shipachyov-Dadonov-Gusev line to pick up the slack … and the trio has responded in fine style. With 14 points apiece in the playoffs, this has been by far and away the deadliest line on SKA’s roster, and on the power play it has been especially impressive. They have produced eight goals between them on the PP, and contributed assists on further scores from Hersley and Belov as SKA repeatedly punishes its opponents for any indiscipline. The sudden upswing in production from Jarno Koskiranta has been another boon. The Finn achieved a modest 12+6=18 in 57 regular-season games, but quickly heated up in the playoffs to produce 6+4=10 in 13 appearances. Winning teams often rely on a player hitting form at the right time, and Koskiranta could be the man to do that for SKA in this run.
Scoring goes deep: Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeny Ketov have five goals each, and even Alexander Barabanov ended a 38-game goal drought to snatch an overtime winner against Lokomotiv.
Special teams
That Shipachyov line has been impressive on the power play, helping SKA to 20 goals with a man advantage. That’s the joint top return in this year’s playoffs, matched only by Grand Final opponent Metallurg. But SKA also has a miserly PK to call upon, killing 93.3% of its penalties and allowing just three goals when playing at reduced strength. Another important detail: SKA has drawn noticeably more penalties than everyone else, with 73 opportunities to play with a man advantage. With Magnitka allowing 11 goals on its PK, that could prove a decisive factor in the coming series.
Coaching
Oleg Znarok is behind the bench for his fourth Gagarin Cup Final. Victory would make him the first man to lift the cup three teams, and only the second to do it with two different clubs. More impressively, though, he’s a rare example of a coach who can successfully adapt his style to the roster at his disposal. In 2010, for his first tilt at the title, he took a decidedly non-stellar MVD roster to within one game of glory based on tactics that promoted team-work, resilience and an element of surprise. At Dynamo Moscow, where he won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013, he took many of those players and melded them into a winning team with greater scope for individual flair; don’t forget his second championship season found space for the unique talents of Alexander Ovechkin during the NHL lock-out. Then, at Team Russia and now at SKA, Znarok has shown that he can work with the biggest names and the most extravagant talents in the Russian game. If it takes one skill set to win as an underdog, it’s a different matter to triumph as a favorite. Znarok has shown he can present a formidable team in any circumstances.
