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Chmelevski’s hat trick and Rybar’s saves – Top imports
Imports were instrumentals again in their teams’ success. KHL.ru presents the best players from each country.
United States
F, Salavat Yulaev, 3 G, 4 (4+0) points, +1
The Ufa forward had a striking performance on Tuesday, when he netted his second hat-trick of the season as Salavat Yulaev achieved a 4:1 win over Amur following two straight losses. The American-born forward posted a natural hat-trick against the Tigers, including two goals on the man advantage and the game-winning tally. After his treble over Amur, Chmelevski helped Salavat Yulaev blanking Sibir on Saturday (2:0), netting his 14th of the season. The American forward is currently Salavat Yulaev’s top sniper and scorer, and the Ufa franchise climbed up to sixth position in the East.
Canada
F, Dynamo Moscow, 3 G, 5 (3+2) points, +7
Dynamo Moscow is in great shape of late, and Cedric Paquette has been one of its top contributors last week. The forward started the week potting a double in Dynamo’s 5:2 win in Sochi, where he also had a plus-3 differential. After being scoreless in the revenge match against Sochi (5:2), Paquette had another striking performance on Saturday. With Dynamo blanking Lokomotiv in Yaroslavl, Paquette participated in all his club’s goals, ending the game with one goal and two assists, and a plus-3 differential again. Paquette posted a league-leading plus-7 rating, tied with his linemate Jordan Weal and Avangard’s Reid Boucher. Dynamo Moscow is currently leading the Western Conference standings.
Czechia/Russia
F, Ak Bars, 3 G, 4 (4+0) goals, +3
The productive forward had a good week with his team, propelling Ak Bars to two wins last week, and has also scored in the Green Derby’s 1:3 loss to Salavat Yulaev. However, on the brighter side, Jaskin potted a double when Ak Bars defeated Barys on Saturday (5:3), and had another tally in Ak Bars’ win against SKA on Tuesday. In this eventful week, Jaskin confirmed himself as one of the top snipers in the league, and is currently trailing only Nikolai Goldobin in the goalscoring race, with 16 goals (tied with Boucher) against 20.
Sweden
D, Metallurg, 2 G, 2 (1+1) points, +2
After a good start, Press slowed down a bit, but last week, he returned to points production last week when Magnitka achieved a sound 5:1 victory over Dinamo Minsk on Saturday. In that game, the Swedish blueliner had a goal and an assist as Magnitka is trying to build a new winning streak after losing four straight matches on October’s tail. In the game against Dinamo Minsk, Press opened the score after only four minutes in the first frame, then assisted Alexander Petunin’s powerplay tally in the second period. Press is currently Metallurg’s top scorer from the blue line, and head coach Andrei Razin is counting on him to keep on being among the Eastern contenders.
Slovakia
G, Spartak, 3 G, 2 W, 93.10%, GAA 2.01
Spartak is currently one of the top teams in the league – and hardly it could be that without having a capable goalie between the piping. Slovakia’s Patrik Rybar is now the undisputed starting goalie for the Red-and-Whites, and he helped Spartak achieving two wins last week, against Neftekhimik and Torpedo, respectively. The goalie posted a 21-save performance against the Wolves, and had 27 saves in Spartak’s 4:3 win over the Nizhny Novgorod side. He also had 33 saves when Spartak suffered from a 0:3 loss to CSKA – the Gagarin Cup reigning champions scored one in the empty net. Spartak is currently the second seed in the West, and Rybar may help the Muscovites to return to the top.
