All series, all square — the KHL week in review

The playoffs are underway, and this year’s are more competitive than ever. We’ve seen one big hitter lose a first-round game for the first team since 2014 and an underdog take the lead in a series for the first time in its history. Meanwhile, a new star is emerging and a Red Star is hoping to return home.

All series, all square

The 2023 Gagarin Cup playoffs got underway in history-making fashion. For the first time since the league’s foundation, all eight Conference quarter-final series were tied 1-1 after two games. Previously, every playoff campaign featured at least one first-round sweep. Among the highlights, Vityaz got its first ever win in a playoff game when it took a 1-0 verdict against Lokomotiv in overtime, while Dinamo Minsk stunned regular season champion SKA with a 6-4 win in the series opening Petersburg. In the East, Neftekhimik won at Ak Bars and Admiral got its first ever playoff road win in Ufa.

Daily Round-up

CSKA suffers first first-round loss since 2014

Among all the surprises in the first few days of post season, the biggest was surely Severstal’s victory at CSKA in game two of their series. It wasn’t just the way Andrei Razin’s outsiders recovered from allowing two quick goals to trail midway through the third period. It wasn’t even the fearless charge that brought Nikita Guslistov the OT winner. The most striking fact about Severstal’s success was that it ended a run of 33 games dating back to 2014, the last time CSKA lost a first-round playoff game. In that season, the Muscovites suffered a sweep at the hands of SKA. Since then, though, the opening stage has been a cakewalk for the Red-and-Blues: Sochi (2015), Slovan (2016), Jokerit (2017), Spartak (2018 and 2021), Vityaz (2019), Torpedo (2020) and Lokomotiv (2022) all failed to win a game in a remarkable series of victories. The CSKA-Severstal series resumes Monday in Cherepovets, with the Steelmen looking to forge ahead in the contest.

Severstal stuns CSKA, Torpedo ties its series. March 4 playoffs

Admiral leads for first time (twice)

Vladivostok also witnessed a bit of playoff history this season. The Pacific Ocean port staged a post season game for the first time since 2017 and Admiral duly defeated Salavat Yulaev in overtime after recovering from 0-2 at the second intermission. More importantly, though, that put the Sailors up 2-1 in the series. Admiral also won the opener in Ufa, also in overtime, and in doing so moved ahead in a playoff series for the first time in the club’s history. The next potential milestone would be to win three games in a series (previously, the team’s best was a 2-4 series loss to Avangard in 2017) and then to claim a first-ever series victory.

Admiral, Ak Bars inch ahead. March 5 playoffs

Tesanov makes it look easy

Lokomotiv’s young forward Daniil Tesanov did not feature in the first game of the playoff series against Vityaz. However, after his team lost in overtime, the 21-year-old was brought into Igor Nikitin’s line-up and repaid the head coach’s faith with two goals in three games. For comparison, in 36 regular season outings, Tesanov had one goal and three helpers. Tesanov himself seems a little surprised by his sudden hot streak: after potting his second goal on Sunday the youngster looked almost abashed at his rush of success. That might partly be due to his previous playoff experience coming primarily in the juniors, with just three post-season outings in the KHL last term. Tesanov’s contribution last week helped his team deliver two big victories – 6-2 and 4-0 – to take the lead after three games of the series.

Red Star ready for China return

After three seasons in exile in Mytishchi, the league’s Chinese franchise Kunlun Red Star is preparing to return to Beijing. Recent weeks have seen China’s government lift several anti-Covid restrictions and an end to the ban on international sporting events is expected imminently. That should pave the way for the Dragons to start playing out of Beijing again next season, as club vice-president Nikolai Feoktistov explained at the end-of-season press conference.

Agidel, Biryusa advance in women’s championship

The Women’s Hockey League playoffs also got underway last week, and two of the four semi-finalists already booked their spots. Agidel, runaway regular season champion, got past 7.62 in two games. The Ufa-based club won 2-0 in the opener in Voskresensk, but had to dig deep to overturn a 0-2 deficit on home ice. A 4-2 victory, with two goals from Veronika Korzhakova, sealed the series. Biryusa, meanwhile, showed off its powerful offense against Belye Medveditsy of Chelyabinsk. The Siberians won 7-2 on the road and 6-1 at home to move to the final four. On Monday, Dynamo Neva can wrap up its series against KRS Shenzhen, while Tornado travels to Torpedo with a 1-0 lead in that series following a shoot-out win in game one.