Round two underway

The second round of this year’s playoffs is here – and not just in the KHL. While the race for the Gagarin Cup resumed at the weekend, we’re also ready for the next pairings in the Women’s and Junior Hockey Leagues this week.

Upsetting the odds

Round two of the 2024 KHL playoffs got underway – and the opening games were all about the outsiders. Three of the four series began with road wins: Lokomotiv (fourth in the West) grabbed an OT verdict at Avangard (second in the East) to end a 14-year wait for victory in Omsk. Traktor (sixth in the East) scored three quick first-period goals at regular season champ Dynamo Moscow before winning 4-2. And on Sunday, Avtomobilist (fifth in the East) went to St. Petersburg and downed SKA (second in the West) 3-2.

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Bucking the trend

The only game that followed the formbook was in Magnitogorsk, where Eastern conference top seed Metallurg defeated Spartak (fourth in the West) 4-0. That was only the third time in 2023-2024 that the Red-and-Whites failed to score. Notably, the second-round ties this year are the first ever cross-Conference playoff pairings. In the inaugural 2008-2009 season match-ups were not divided into East and West, but at that time there were no Conferences. Under the revised format, the semi-finals will pit the winners among Dynamo, Traktor, Avangard and Lokomotiv against one another, with two of Metallurg, Spartak, SKA and Avtomobilist contesting the other SF.

Nikitin’s century

Lokomotiv head coach Igor Nikitin took charge of his 100^th playoff game in Omsk on Saturday. The venue had some resonance: as a player, Nikitin spent nine years with Avangard and then began his coaching career with the Siberian club. Later he had spells with Sibir and CSKA, where he won the Muscovites’ first Gagarin Cup.

Attendance records tumble

The playoff first round was completed early last week with Metallurg and Dynamo Moscow securing their places in the next round with road wins at Amur and Dinamo Minsk respectively. As well as confirming the eight teams that would continue in the battle for the Gagarin Cup, this also established two new first-round attendance records. Both the aggregate attendance of 407,270 spectators and the average crowd of 9,471 are all-time highs. These figures were, of course, greatly helped by the enhanced capacity at the new SKA Arena, which claimed crowds in excess of 23,000 for games against Torpedo.

Boucher matches first-round goal record

Avangard forward Reid Boucher potted seven goals to help his team past Lada in five games. That matched the KHL record for first-round goals, putting Boucher alongside Vladimir Antipov and Nigel Dawes. Antipov scored seven in five games as Traktor got past Ugra in 2012. The following year, Dawes hit seven for Barys, but needed a seven-game series against Traktor. Boucher is on pace to set a record for most goals in a single playoff campaign, currently 15 from Evgeny Dadonov (2015, SKA) and Danis Zaripov (2017, Metallurg). If Avangard goes deep into this year’s playoffs, the Canadian has a great chance of improving on that mark.

Almaz rallies from 0-2 as Junior playoffs start

The Junior Hockey League playoffs brought epic first-round battles. The Petersburg derby between SKA 1946 and Dynamo St. Petersburg went all the way to five games. SKA kicked off with two comfortable victories on home ice, only for Dynamo to tie the scores when the series crossed town. Back in SKA’s barn for game five, a 5-0 home win continued the quest for the Kharlamov Cup. The Dynamo Moscow vs Almaz match-up also saw the higher seed jump to a 2-0 lead. This time, though, the underdog bit back and managed to take the series. Almaz recovered in Cherepovets, grabbing an OT win in game four to square series. Back in Moscow, a 4-0 victory for Almaz completed the comeback. Chaika Nizhny Novgorod, Belye Medvedy Chelyabinsk, Mamonty Ugry, Omskiye Yastreby, Spartak and Loko complete the line-up for the second round.

Agidel hits scoring record in Women’s playoffs

The first round of the Women’s Hockey League playoffs saw sweeps for four teams. Agidel, Torpedo, Biryusa and Dynamo Neva all advanced without dropping a game. Along the way, Agidel set a new league record, scoring four goals in a minute on SKSO Yekaterinburg. And Dynamo goalie Diana Farkhutdinova had back-to-back shut-outs to close out the series after the opening game against Belye Medveditsy Chelyabinsk went to overtime.