KHL 3x3 Round 20: Ak Bars stays on top
Throughout this inaugural KHL 3x3 Championship, Ak Bars has been the team to beat. And the Kazan club came out on top again here, dropping just one game to top the group, then beating Sibir 7-3 in the Supergame.
Story of the Round
In the end, the only player who was able to put up any resistance to Ak Bars in this round was Sibir’s goalie Mikhail Podlipayev. On the opening day he made 28 saves to secure his team’s first win over the Tatars this season (3-2). After that, Ak Bars overpowered everyone.
Ak Bars increased its lead over Metallurg to 15 points in the overall standings and drew level with Magnitka on six Supergame victories. And there were three other achievements that made the 20th round memorable for the team. First, Kirill Mukhin scored the quickest hat-trick of the season, scoring three on Dinamo Minsk in just 43 seconds. Rookie goalie Maxim Arefyev had a shut-out in his first round and became the fourth Ak Bars netminder to join that elite club. And finally, defenseman Daniil Chetvernikov emerged as an ever-more influential player on his team, proving effective on both sides of the puck. By the end of this round, he also found himself leading the league for average ice time.
Player of the Round
Yury Muravyov (Ak Bars)
The good old “Kazan Brazilians” once again played a leading role for Ak Bars. Leading scorer Yury Muravyov had another very effective round and top the charts for the third time this season. He had 9 (6+3) points, then added a memorable goal and assist in the Supergame.
Muravyov reached 50 goals in this round. Thus far, in 60 games he has 86 (55+31) points, good for third place in the overall scoring race behind Magnitka’s prolific duo. But it won’t be easy to catch those two: Sergei Shmelyov has 104 points, Pavel Varfolomeyev 103.
Game of the Round
Dinamo Minsk 3 Sibir 4
The rivalry between Minsk and Novosibirsk is the big unresolved issue as the regular season draws to a close. The teams are battling for the final spot in the playoffs. For Sibir, Sunday's game was even more significant, since victory would earn a place in the Supergame.
It all looked as if Dinamo was set not only to deny its opponent a place in the final game, but would also increase its lead in the overall standings. In the second period, the Belarusians scored three goals in 66 seconds and seemingly took the game away from Sibir. But this is 3х3, and here there is no situation so dire as to be irretrievable. Artyom Mishkin and Vladimir Mikhalyov proved that point, scoring two apiece to give Sibir the win.
That victory also cut the gap between the teams to six points. That’s nothing, especially considering that the teams will go head-to-head in two more rounds before the end of the season. The final four weeks promise to be full of intrigue!
Rookie of the Round
It wasn’t a great weekend for Dinamo Minsk, but there was some consolation in the form of debutant Vyacheslav Andryushenko. The 35-year-old forward was his team’s most productive player with 10 (6+4) points. “It’s an interesting format,” he said after his first taste of 3x3. “There’s not much space, you’re always in the game, you have to think fast. You don’t get much time to recover, so a lot depends on how well you can do it when you’re tired. I chatted with guys from different teams, not just from Dinamo. It’s clear that what you see on TV is very different from what happens on the ice.”
Photo of the Round
On the 80th Anniversary Victory Day, the games were prefaced with a minute’s silence in memory of those who died during the Great Patriotic War. The games themselves were played to the accompaniment of martial music. In the evening, the players and coaches from all teams in the KHL 3x3 laid flowers at the Eternal Flame in Podolsk.
