Players of the Week: Garipov, Nesterov, Dawes and Kuzmin

To mark the end of the ninth week’s play of the tenth season of the Championship, The Kontinental Hockey League has named the best players of the week in four categories.

– Best goaltender was Emil Garipov (Ak Bars), who helped the Kazan Men claim two wins in three games, including one shutout victory. The 26-year-old Russian recorded a save percentage of 96.43 and a goals against average of 1.14, and his shutout series currently stands at 101 minutes 56 seconds.

– Best defenseman was Nikita D. Nesterov (CSKA). The 24-year-old Russian also celebrated two victories in three outings, and his personal statistics for the past seven days show 10 shots at goal, 6 blocks, 3 (1+2) points, and a +4 for the week;

– Best forward, for the third time this season, was Nigel Dawes (Barys), the 32-year-old Canadian with Kazakh citizenship made only two appearances, yet still enjoyed another highly productive week, scoring a double in each outing, averaging more than 20 minutes on the ice and earning a +1. Dawes's four-goal haul came from 8 shots, included the game-winner in both games, and was the highest total for Week 9 of any forward in the League;

– Best rookie was 20-year-old Salavat Yulaev forward Gleb Kuzmin, whose account for the past seven days shows three outings, two wins, one goal, three blocks and an average ice time of more than 10 minutes.