Playoff update and scoring feats

A total of 12 out of 16 playoff spots are now confirmed, with all eight participants from Western Conference known. Meanwhile, an American is setting scoring records in Belarus and a long-serving SKA man is closing on his 1,000th appearance. Read on for all you need to know about week 26 in the KHL.

The West is Done

All eight playoff spaces from the Western Conference are now full. Spartak was the last team to punch its ticket, securing a spot on Friday after Shanghai Dragons lost at CSKA. But the intrigue will continue right up to the end as teams jockey for position to get the most favorable draw. Torpedo faces a battle to stay in the top four and begin the playoffs on home ice: Alexei Isakov’s team is on 76 points but has played two games more than CSKA (74 points) and Dynamo Moscow (72). Meanwhile, Dynamo is just three points ahead of eighth-placed SKA. At the top, Lokomotiv has a comfortable five-point lead, but free-scoring Dinamo Minsk may yet fancy its chances of snatching top spot.

The East is still open

There are still playoff spots up for grabs in the East, and it’s looking like a fight to the end for Sibir and Amur. The Novosibirsk club currently has the advantage in eighth place, with a five-point lead over the Tigers. But Amur has a game in hand. The next four in Khabarovsk could be key to the chances of the Platinum Arena hosting playoff hockey this season. Elsewhere, Salavat Yulaev is potentially one victory away from punching its ticket, while Traktor and Neftekhimik are still a few points short of locking their post season places.

Anas reaches 80 …

Dinamo Minsk’s American forward Sam Anas had a hand in all three goals during Friday’s win at Sochi. That takes him to 80 points for the season, only the fifth player to do so in the KHL. He also became the sixth man to deliver 50 assists. The next target is 89 points – Nikita Gusev’s record regular season haul. Anas has seven games to try to beat it. Anas and his team-mate Alex Limoges are currently on the KHL’s longest hot streaks as well: nine games each, with 20 points for Anas and 15 for Limoges.

… and sets a club record

In his third season with Minsk, Anas now has 183 (73+110) points. That makes him the club’s record scorer in the KHL era, beating Geoff Platt’s 177. Matt Ellison is third on 166, but a good playoff run could see him eclipsed by fourth-placed Vitaly Pinchuk (153).

CSKA fights back from 0-4

That CSKA vs Shanghai Dragons game was an all-time classic. The Dragons came out breathing fire: only victory would keep their season alive and they raced into a 4-0 lead inside 14 minutes. But the Muscovites didn’t buckle, and a flurry at the end of the first period saw the home team get back to 3-4. A goalless second period followed, before CSKA tied it up on the power play at the start of the third. Shanghai wasn’t done, regaining the lead, but the action was destined for overtime. And there, after 21 seconds, Pavel Karnaukhov put CSKA in front for the first and only time in the game. 6-5 OT.

Plotnikov joins elite snipers

SKA forward Sergei Plotnikov’s goal on Admiral helped SKA get the win that clinched its playoff spot on Tuesday. It also moved him to 250 goals, the eighth player to do this in the KHL. It won’t be long before Plotnikov reaches another landmark – he is just three games away from his 1,000th appearance in a career that has taken in time at Amur, Lokomotiv, Metallurg, CSKA and two spells with SKA.

Filin’s first hat-trick, Ivanov misses out

Spartak’s Yegor Filin got his first KHL hat-trick during his team’s 6-3 win over Admiral. He converted a power play in the first period, scored at equal strength then completed his treble with an empty-net goal. Lokomotiv’s Georgy Ivanov thought he had something similar in a 5-2 win over SKA when he fired into the empty net late on. However, a review of the play spotted a deflection off Artur Kayumov, downgrading Ivanov to an assist.

Shot down in shoot-outs

Ak Bars suffered three successive losses – and all three of them came in shoot-outs. Indeed, post-game shots have brought five losses from five attempts for Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men in 2026. The losing streak was halted with a 1-0 win at Traktor on Sunday. Perhaps more importantly for Kazan’s hopes of glory, there are no shoot-outs in playoff hockey.