The KHL Disciplinary Committee has had one of its busiest ever mornings as it renewed investigations into a number of incidents from Friday’s games in the Championship. Two players have received one-game suspensions as a result. In the 39th minute of the game in Podolsk between Vityaz and Ak Bars Kazan, Mario Kempe was sent to the locker room following a hit on visiting forward Alexander Svitov. The Committee upheld the referee’s decision to impose a major plus game misconduct penalty (5+20 minutes) for illegal use of the knee. As Kempe had been penalized for a similar offense earlier this season, he incurs an automatic suspension of one game for repeat offending.
The Committee also scrutinized the major plus game misconduct penalty handed to Metallurg Magnitogorsk forward Jan Kovar for a hit on SKA forward Vadim Shipachyov in the 51st minute of the game in Saint Petersburg. The Committee ruled that the referee’s call, checking to the head and neck area, was the correct one. As with Kempe, this was the second time this season that Kovar has earned a game misconduct for such a foul, and therefore he, too, must serve a one-game suspension.
