February’s finest: Yeryomenko, Nakladal, Mozyakin and Alexeyev.
To mark the end of the sixth full month’s play of the ninth season of the Championship, The Kontinental Hockey League has named the best players of the month in four categories.
– Best goaltender, for the third straight month, was Alexander Yeryomenko (Dynamo Moscow), who helped his team celebrate victory in 6 out of 7 appearances, including a shutout that was part of an unbeaten spell lasting 145 minutes 7 seconds. Yeryomenko ended the month with the highest save percentage (95.24) and lowest goals against average (1.42) of any goalie in the League;
– Best defenseman was Jakub Nakladal (Lokomotiv), who played in 8 matches, 6 of which were wins for the Railwaymen, and contributed 24 shots at goal and 10 hits. Moreover, the Czech D-man’s points total of 6 (4+2) included three game-winners, two of which were in the playoffs (Game 2 and Game 3 versus Dinamo Minsk) and a double (Game 3 against the Minsk men). Nakladal did not receive a single negative rating on his way to earning a +3 for the month;
– Best forward, for the second successive month and for the fourth time this season, was Sergei Mozyakin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), with 6 victories from 8 games, thanks in no small part to his 7 goals – the biggest February haul in the League. Mozyakin scored a double against Severstal (including the game-winner) plus a hat-trick against SKA, and with his go-ahead goal at Red Star Kunlun he became the first man ever to score 1,000 points in Russian national championships;
Mozyakin scores his 1,000th point. Playoffs day 6
“Honest and deceptive; intelligent and terrific!” – M.Keenan on S.Mozyakin
– Best rookie was 19-year-old Admiral forward Denis Alexeyev, who was given 9 outings in February, hitting 22 shots at goal, averaging 15 minutes 23 seconds of ice time, and earning an efficiency rating of +2. Alexeyev ended the month with 3 points (2+1), which included the assist for the game-winning goal in Game 3 of the playoff series against Avangard.
