Avangard climbs up, Kristof propels Admiral. Week 9 top imports
Knight nets a hat-trick, while Kalnins helps the Sailors reaching the fifth place in the East. KHL.ru presents the best players from each country.
Latvia
G, Amur, 2 G, 1 W, 96.20%, 1.53 GAA
The season didn’t start so well for Amur, but their options in goal are solid, with Evgeny Alikin freshly named to the All-Star rosters, and Janis Kalnins. The Latvian veteran, who will turn 32 in December, started his week helping the Tigers defeating Severstal on Thursday, when he stopped 39 shots on a busy night. Three days later, Kalnins had another striking performance, when he stopped 37 out of 38 attempts by Traktor, but Amur couldn’t find a way to beat Ilya Proskuryakov as the Chelyabinsk side recorded a 1:0 victory. The Tigers currently sit in the Eastern Conference’s last place, but the playoffs line is just five points ahead.
United States
F, Avangard, 3 G, 6 (2+4) points, +6
The American forward propelled Avangard’s week, with two wins and an OT loss to Admiral. Most importantly, Boucher posted five points in the Hawks’ 6:0 thumping of Barys of Tuesday – Avangard’s first line was on fire that night, with Corban Knight netting a hat-trick and Vladimir Tkachyov equaling Boucher’s five-point performance. The trio also recorded a remarkable plus-5 differential. However, Avangard’s bench boss Mikhail Kravets would rather have them saving some goals for the next games, as the Hawks failed to score when Admiral collected a 1:0, OT win. But in the next game, with Avangard facing Kunlun Red Star, Boucher returned to the scoresheet as he scored on the empty net helping the Hawks taking down the Dragons (5:2). After a rocky start, Avangard is currently the seventh seed in the East.
Slovakia
F, Admiral, 3 G, 3 (0+3) points, +2
Admiral is another Eastern game on the rise, and last week, they won three consecutive games – with six victories in the most recent ten encounters. One of the top contributors for the Sailors was Slovakia’s Michal Kristof. The forward had an assist in each of the three played games, but he wasn’t useful only for his offensive plays: he regularly logged more than twenty minutes a night, he was useful on the faceoff dots – especially in the Oct 30 game against Avtomobilist, when Admiral collected a 1:2 away win. That night, he assisted on Nikolajs Jelisejevs game-winning goal, and led all Admiral’s forward with 21:44 on ice. The Sailors are currently the fifth seed in the East, and if they continue playing like that, maybe they can climb up even further.
Canada
F, Avangard, 3 G, 4 (3+1) points, +6
We’ve already talked about Avangard’s strong play of late – and one of its top players was Canada’s Corban Knight. The productive center netted a hat-trick in Tuesday’s Avangard big win over Barys, his second in the KHL, and further cemented his reputation as one of the league’s most valuable players. The veteran collected a plus-5 differential against Barys, and after being left out of the scoresheet in the Friday’s game against Admiral – just like the whole Avangard squad – Knight contributed with an assist on the Hawks’ 5:2 home win over Kunlun Red Star on Sunday, also adding a plus-1 rating. If the Hawks want to return flying high in the Gagarin Cup playoffs, they exactly need such performance from Knight.
