Bans for Zakharchuk, Alexeyev and Karsums

Events during Wednesday’s games in the Championship led to a busy day for the KHL Disciplinary Committee, with incidents from three clashes coming under official scrutiny.

In the 55th minute of the game in Moscow between CSKA and Sibir, the home team forward, Alexander Radulov, was struck in the face by visiting defenseman Konstantin Alexeyev, for which the Novosibirsk player received a major plus game misconduct penalty (5+20 minutes) for causing injury by checking to the head and neck area. The Disciplinary Committee upheld the referee’s decision and imposed an additional two-game suspension on Alexeyev.

In the 20th minute of the game in Cherepovets between Severstal and Ak Bars Kazan, visiting defenseman Stepan Zakharchuk used his elbow to strike the face of Severstal forward Ignat Zemchenko. The Committee supports the referee’s decision to award a major plus game misconduct penalty (5+20 minutes) for causing injury by checking to the head and neck area and has banned Zakharchuk for three games.

“In imposing this punishment, the Committee is taking into account the fact that Zakharchuk has been guilty of similar fouls, not just this season but also in previous campaigns,” said Valery Kamensky, chairman of the Disciplinary Committee.

The Committee studied a second incident from the same game, the 56th-minute collision by the boards between Severstal defenseman Alexander Yevseyenkov and Ak Bars forward Mikhail Varnakov, for which Yevseyenkov was sent back to the locker room for kicking. In this case, the Committee saw nothing illegal in Yevseyenkov’s challenge and has cancelled the penalty.

In the 43rd minute of the SKA vs, Dynamo Moscow game, visiting forward Martins Karsums earned a major plus game misconduct penalty (5+20 minutes) for kneeing with intent to injure an opponent during a challenge on Petersburg forward Vadim Shipachyov. The Committee supported the referee’s decision but did not deem the foul serious enough to warrant any further sanctions. However, as it was his second game misconduct penalty of the season, Karsums still receives an automatic one-game ban.

Finally, the Committee upheld the referee’s award of a game misconduct penalty against SKA coach Mikhail Kravets for abusing the officials.