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League leader SKA recorded a 6-3 win at Kunlun Red Star, extending its perfect start to nine games. Defending champion CSKA suffered a second successive loss, going down to Dinamo Minsk. Dynamo Moscow defeated Severstal as Alexei Kudashov celebrated 400 games as head coach in the KHL, while Avtomobilist returned to the top of the Eastern Conference after winning at Sibir.

Moscow hosted the first overtime of this year’s playoffs, and it ended in a home victory as Maxim Sorkin snapped a 3-3 tie to give CSKA the verdict over Lokomotiv.

A roller-coaster game at Traktor saw the home team behind three times before sealing victory with a classy late play from young forward Nikita Tertyshny.

It didn’t take long for the 2022 Gagarin Cup playoffs to produce their first shock result: game one of the series between top seed Metallurg and outsider Barys saw the Kazakh team grab a road win against the team that topped the regular season table.

It’s been a while, but the KHL is back on the ice in earnest on Tuesday as the race for the 2022 Gagarin Cup gets underway. Meanwhile, our junior and women’s leagues are already back in action, with big achievements from Matvei Michkov and Noora Raty in the past week.

The closing stages of the Beijing Olympics came with a strong KHL flavor. In the gold medal game, 35 of the 42 players were from our league, and in total 42 of the 75 medals awarded went to active KHLers. Now, as players return to their clubs, the focus is on final preparations for the playoffs, which are confirmed to start on March 1.

Slovakia won its first Olympic ice hockey medal thanks to a 4-0 victory over Sweden in the bronze medal game. Teenage wunderkind Juraj Slafkovsky led the way with two goals, while Dinamo Minsk goalie Patrik Rybar came up with a shut-out as his country made history in Beijing.

A shoot-out winner from Arseny Gritsyuk, a vital defensive intervention from Vladimir Tkachyov in overtime and a resolute performance that silenced the free-scoring Lucas Wallmark combined to keep Team ROC on course for a successful Olympic title defense.

Five players with experience in Russia’s Women’s Hockey League are leaving Beijing with medals at the end of the Olympic tournament — and three of them are due back in the Women’s Hockey League next week.

Wednesday was quarter-finals day in the Olympic men’s tournament — and Team ROC progressed to a match-up against ... in the final four. The Russians beat Denmark 3-1, while ... In the other side of the draw, Slovakia surprised the USA in a shoot-out and will play Finland in the semi-finals.

The last eight line-up at the Olympics is confirmed. Canada’s win over China sets up an appealing clash with Sweden, Switzerland advances to face Finland, Slovakia will take on the USA and team ROC has a rematch against Denmark in Wednesday’s action from Beijing.

As the men’s tournament got underway in Beijing, the KHL’s contingent made an immediate impact at the Olympics. Back in Russia, two new tournaments help to keep players busy during the break in the season.

Team USA topped Group A at the Winter Olympics thanks to a 3-2 win over Germany, while Canada beat China 5-0 — and faces the Dragons again in the qualification round.

An 11-goal thriller produced the most compelling spectacle of the men’s Olympic hockey tournament so far — but ROC ended up on the wrong side of the referees and the wrong side of the scoreline.

Team ROC 2 Switzerland 4 (0-0, 1-1, 1-3)

The second gameday in Group B saw a second victory for Team ROC — and that puts Alexei Zhamnov’s team directly into the quarter-finals.

Team China made its Olympic debut, but suffered a rude awakening in a 0-8 loss to Team USA. In Group A’s other action, Canada defeated 2018 silver medallist Germany 5-1.

Day one of the men’s competition in Beijing saw Team ROC eke a narrow victory over Switzerland before Denmark shocked Czechia in the other Group B action.

Team ROC faces a rematch with Switzerland in the knock-out phase of the Women’s Olympic tournament in Beijing. A disappointing loss against previously winless Finland saw the team finish fourth in Group A. Thus, the Red Machine will take part in the only quarter-final that doesn’t involve an outside from Group B, which was comprised of the five lower-ranked teams in the tournament.

The Olympic men’s tournament starts tomorrow (Feb. 9) and KHL. ru completes its survey of the competing teams with a look at the defending champion, Team ROC.

The big news at home was the confirmation of this season’s playoffs, which will start on March 1 with no further regular season action in the KHL. For many of our players, though, the Olympics are dominating everything. The Opening Ceremony took place in Beijing on Friday and Russia’s Women’s Hockey League is already making an impact at the Games.

Team ROC women scored on Canada in Olympic play for the first time, but Monday’s game was overshadowed by controversy.

Saturday’s second game for our girls ended in a brave but heavy loss against powerful opposition.

The Olympic men’s tournament is on the way and KHL.ru continues its previews of the competing teams. Today it’s the turn of the host nation, Team China. It’s the first time the country has gone to the Games, and it faces a huge task against Canada, the USA and Germany in Group A.

KHL President Alexei Morozov speaks about the continuation of the season.

KHL.ru continues its preview of the Olympic men’s hockey tournament with a look at the Canadians. Without the NHL, Canada won bronze four years ago. In similar circumstances this time, how will this perennial powerhouse fare?

The preparation was hugely disrupted. Several key players were isolating in hospital. Yet Team ROC rose above adversity to make a winning start to its Olympic campaign. Polina Bolgareva’s hat-trick led the win in a 5-2 success over Switzerland — and there are high hopes of more to come as the country bids for a first ever medal in women’s hockey.

When the Olympic hockey action gets underway this week, viewers could be forgiven for feeling they’ve seen a lot of this in Russian hockey in recent years. The Wukesong Arena, which will stage most of the women’s games, was the first home of Kunlun Red Star in the KHL, while Russia’s Women’s Hockey League supplies more players than ever to this year’s tournament. The entire Team ROC roster comes from the league, as does Team China. And there are plenty more with WHL connections lining up for their respective nations in this year’s competition.

As of Saturday, 164 of the players selected to go to the 2022 Olympics have played in the KHL at some point in their careers. That represents 55% of all male hockey players heading to Beijing. It’s an increase from 2018, when 47% of players in PyeongChang had KHL experience. Not surprisingly, then, the Games dominates this week’s review.

KHL.ru continues its preview of the teams competing at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Today we’re looking at a Czech roster that will face the Russians in Group B with 12 current KHLers and many more players well-known to fans around the league.

KHL.ru continues its preview of the teams competing at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. This time, we’re looking at Team USA, which will face Canada, Germany and China in the group stage.

In the absence of action on the ice, the focus was very much on the build-up to the Olympics. In the men’s tournament, several more countries unveiled their rosters for Beijing and 33 KHLers were included among Russia’s rivals at the Games.

Amid the on-going challenges of the pandemic, two more KHL teams confirmed their playoff place. In addition, 17 KHL players were unveiled in their countries’ Olympic rosters — with three more from the Women’s Hockey League also named in the first line-ups to be announced for Beijing.

The last KHL game before the Olympics took place in Vladivostok, where Admiral continues to preserve its slim hopes of making the playoffs. Victory today keeps the dream alive, but the Sailors did it the hard way after trailing twice against Sibir.

Thursday brought two KHL games, with Avtomobilist playing for the first time this year and getting a valuable 5-2 win over Severstal. SKA edged Sochi 2-1 to go four points clear at the top of the Western Conference.

Two goals in the last three minutes sent league leader Traktor spinning to a 2-4 loss at playoff chasing Neftekhimik. In Wednesday’s other game, Admiral edged Sibir 2-1 to maintain at least a theoretical chance of making the top eight.

A 3-1 win at SKA enabled Ak Bars to confirm a top-eight finish in the Eastern Conference in Tuesday’s big game. Elsewhere, Vityaz snatched a last-gasp equalizer at home to Severstal but lost out in overtime.

Monday was a day of unsuccessful fightbacks. First, Amur rallied from 0-2 at home to Sibir but fell in a shoot-out. Then Kunlun Red Star moved from 0-3 to 2-3 but could not escape defeat at home to table-topping Traktor.

The first action of 2022 saw Dmitry Kvartalnov behind the bench for his 800th game in the KHL, while Niko Ojamaki’s 29th goal of the season beat Teemu Hartikainen’s record haul for a Finnish player. Elsewhere, Dinamo Riga faces COVID-related cancellations, but the league is confident it can play on.

Niko Ojamaki got his 29th goal of the season, setting a new record for goals in a single KHL campaign by a Finnish player. However, he could not save Vityaz from a home loss against Avangard. Another Finn, Harri Sateri, was instrumental in Sibir’s 1-0 win at Amur, while unheralded Russian defenseman Ruslan Petrishchikov had a three-point game as Neftekhimik won at Dynamo. Barys won a thriller at Metallurg, Admiral beat Spartak and Severstal was too strong for Sochi in the other games to take place on Sunday.