Players of the Week 17: Scrivens, Nikulin, Dawes and Tkachyov
To mark the end of the seventeenth week’s play of the ninth season of the Championship, the Kontinental Hockey League has named the best players of the week in four categories.
– Best goaltender was Ben Scrivens (Dinamo Minsk), with three wins in three road matches, shutting out the opposition twice and allowing just a single goal all week. The 30-year-old Canadian recorded a save percentage of 98.97 and a goals against average of 0.33 –the best individual figures in both categories;
– Best defenseman was Ilya Nikulin (Dynamo Moscow), who played in three games and finished the week with two victories, contributing 3 points (1+2 – a point in each match) and 9 shots at goal. Nikulin did not receive a single negative rating on his way to earning a +3 for the week;
– Best forward was Nigel Dawes (Barys), who celebrated victory in three of his four appearances, thanks in no small part to his tally of 6 goals, the best of any player over the past seven days. Dawes hit a treble, including the game-winner, against champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk as well as a double against Traktor, and has now scored more hat-tricks than any other player in KHL history;
– Best rookie, for the second week running, was 21-year-old Admiral forward Vladimir Tkachyov, who after three outings ended the week with 3 points (2+1), 6 shots at goal, a rating of +1, and an average ice time of 16 minutes 14 seconds.
