Playoff landmark for ‘hated’ star — the KHL week in review
In a week that saw three teams advance to the conference finals, one forward joined an elite group of KHL legends – and earned the wrath of his most recent opponent.
Three go through, two battle on
Three of the four Conference semi-final series are done. In the east, Avangard completed the first sweep of the season and will face Ak Bars, 4-2 winners over Admiral. That final series gets underway on April 1 in Kazan. In the west, regular season champion SKA shot down Torpedo in four games. However, defending champion CSKA has yet to conclude its series against Lokomotiv. The Muscovites are up 3-2, but game six takes place in Yaroslavl on Monday with Igor Nikitin’s team desperate to drag his former club to a second game seven in successive series.
Milestone for Radulov
Alexander Radulov joined an elite band of forwards to reach 100 points in playoff action. His goal against Admiral in game five of the Eastern Conference semi-final series brought up three figures. That puts him in the same elite bracket as Sergei Mozyakin (172 points), Danis Zaripov (128) and Radulov’s current Ak Bars team-mate Vadim Shipachyov (118). SKA’s Nikita Gusev is the next in line, with 95 playoff points at present.
Backhanded compliment
Summing up Admiral’s battling performance in the series against Ak Bars, head coach Leonids Tambijevs agreed that Radulov made the difference between the teams. The Latvian coach was blunt in his assessment of Kazan’s leading forward.
“When the other team hates a player, you know he’s a good player,” Tambijevs told KHL.ru. “In this series, I just hated Radulov, because he’s so good. And our entire team hated him!”
Rare slump for Metallurg
Avangard despatched Metallurg in four games, handing the Steelmen their first ever sweep in a KHL playoff series. That proved to be the final unwanted distinction of an unhappy season for Magnitogorsk. Last year’s finalist suffered 40 losses (regular season and playoff) for the first time in its history. In addition, this was only the second season when Metallurg lost more games than it won (39 wins against 40 losses).
Larionov pledges to bounce back
If Metallurg’s playoff exit prompted mutterings of discontent in the Urals, Torpedo’s 0-4 loss against SKA did not cause so much distress beside the Volga. Following the final game of the series – and the season – head coach Igor Larionov addressed the home fans.
“On behalf of the team, the staff, everyone who made history here, I’d like to say one thing: without you, we would never have got here. Not without your support, your love for these guys. I bow to you, and to these guys, who battled to the last in every game. But the most important thing – we’ll be stronger. Don’t worry, we’ll be back and we’ll be stronger than ever.”
Salavat Yulaev confirms next season’s coaching
Despite a disappointing exit in the first round of the playoffs, Salavat Yulaev’s management is not planning big changes. During the week, the club announced that it intended to extend the contracts of the entire coaching staff: head coach Viktor Kozlov and his assistants Konstantin Koltsov and Nikolai Tsulygin.
All square in women’s final
The Women’s Hockey League grand final kicked off at the weekend, and this year’s contenders shared the opening games in Ufa. Agidel, home team and runaway regular season champ, started with a 4-0 victory. However, despite the big scoreline, the game was goalless through 40 minutes and Dynamo Neva had chances to get ahead before Agidel took charge. Game two saw Dynamo strike back, grabbing a 2-1 overtime win on a goal from Oxana Bratishcheva. The best-of-five series continues in Petersburg on March 29 and 30, with Dynamo hoping that home ice advantage could help it to secure a first ever championship at the expense of one of Russia’s most titled clubs.
