2021-2022 review. Vityaz: Ojamaki’s talent as a sniper and second year with
KHL.ru reviews the 2021-2022 season for each of the 24 league’s teams. Today it’s Vityaz’s turn.
Vityaz began the season with a very unpleasant streak, as the Moscow Region team suffered eight straight losses at the beginning. Yes, on four of the eight matches, the team earned points for getting to OT at least, but that wasn’t enough to keep them on the right side of the playoffs line in the tight Western Conference standings. After a brief surge in late September, when the team defeated Lokomotiv, SKA, and Amur, Vityaz again suffered a losing streak, this time seven games long. By the middle of October, it was already clear that the team under Babenko’s rule was fighting to avoid becoming the worst team in the West, rather than making the playoffs.
At times, Vityaz played some bright hockey and defeated even the league leaders, but throughout the course of the season two problems plagued the team. The first was poor third period play, which led to a significant number of missed points. The second was Vityaz’s heavy reliance on their leaders. First liners were very good, but if they didn’t play well, few other teammates could pick up the slack. The result was only tenth place in the West and Vityaz missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Best players
43 (29+14) points in 48 games
Sniper Ojamaki was the team’s main star throughout the season. The forward had a very productive season, during which he achieved several accomplishments. First of all, the Finn set a new club record for goals per season for, and secondly, he set a new mark for Finnish snipers in the KHL with 29 tallies. Ojamaki scored on both power play and even strength and eventually became the top sniper of the regular season.
42 (10+32) points in 44 games
Ojamaki and other Vityaz players were actively assisted by Miro Aaltonen, who became the team’s top passer last term. The Finn failed to break his own record for points in a season (44 points in the 2016-2017 season, again representing Vityaz), but set a new benchmark for himself in assists.
39 (17+22) points in 45 games
Odette was one of the KHL breakout players last year. The forward came to Vityaz after winning the title in Finland and didn’t get lost in Russia at all. Audette played in Vityaz’s top line, and at the beginning of the season he iced together with Ojamaki and Aaltonen. The trio was very productive, but at one point the Vityaz coaching staff had to reshuffle the units to shake up the team. Ojamaki for example, was moved to other lines. That didn’t hurt Odette, however — the forward remained productive all season long.
Coaching
For the two-time Gagarin Cup winner Yury Babenko this season was his first as the head coach of a KHL club. Before that, the specialist spent two years as an assistant for Dynamo Moscow and worked for several years in the system of the Russian national U20 and U18 teams. It’s hard to call his debut season a success, but it will surely give him valuable experience to develop his coaching career.
“My evaluation of the team in some places it was an A, in some places it was an A-plus, and in some places, we just failed as if it was a completely different team. But we didn’t meet our goal, we didn’t make the playoffs, so there’s no way we can give it a good mark,” Babenko told KHL TV when asked to sum up the season.
Best game
On October 24, Vityaz visited the Russian capital to face Dynamo and shocked the Moscow crowd with a solid 5-2 win. Things didn’t start out so rosy for Vityaz. The team conceded a goal after just five minutes, but soon Nikita Goncharov evened the score, and the second period was one of the best for Vityaz all season: The team scored twice on the power play and two on even strength. The main hero of the game was defenseman Valtteri Kemilainen, who potted a double and added an assist.
Young guns
Vityaz had enough young players who regularly found a place in the lineup. 21-year-old goalie Maxim Kloberdanets had his League debut. He had one complete game and seven appearances as a substitute, two of which came during the post-game shootout. In his games, Kloberdanets posted a saves percentage of 87.7% with a goals-against average of 3.32.
Also defenseman Yaroslav Busygin had his KHL debut last eyar. The 19-year-old didn’t get much playing time — an average of 7:32 in six games this season — but he did manage to have a helper and post a plus-1 differential. 2002-born players — Ivan Zinchenko and Georgy Savin — also had their first games with the Vityaz uniform. The first took part in 30 games and netted three goals, the second played 13 games (though with a limited role, with about four and a half minutes per game) and scored once.
Offseason moves
In the off-season, Vityaz changed its location and moved to Balashikha and announced a new head coach. Vyacheslav Butsayev, who previously worked in the CSKA system and also led Neftekhimik and Sochi, will be at the helm of the team this season.
Vityaz’s management did a good job on the market, filling the gaps in the roster. All of the Finns imports left the team, as well as a number of other players, such as Fyodor Malykhin, who moved to Avangard, left the Moscow Region. The loss of Ojamaki looks like a serious problem but even so, the Vityaz roster already looks good.
Ilya Yezhov, who joined Salavat Yulaev, will be substituted by Dmitry Shikin; Alexey Volgin from Amur and Vitaly Menshikov from Yokerit were signed to strengthen the defense, while the experienced Vladimir Galuzin and Alexander Avtsin, who played for Spartak last season, will strengthen the team’s offensive line. The big transfer news from Vityaz was the club’s new signing of Daniel Audette, who played for Sweden’s side Orebro after the KHL’s regular season.
