I’d like to make a shoutout to Elvis Kreismanis, who helped me to get this article to be done! Follow him on twitter – @ElvisK94
West Division
The first round of the KHL playoffs was very exciting. Dynamo Moscow, who have won the last two Gagarin Cups were facing Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, who barely made the playoffs. Moscow started this year’s playoffs very confidently taking an early 3-1 lead. However, Lokomotiv was inspired by their coach and forced the series to seven games, the final game played in Moscow. Lokomotiv started quickly and kept the pressure all game long. Moscow couldn’t recover. Lokomotiv goalie Curtis Sandford played great all series long. He is statistically the best goaltender after the first round with 1.29 GAA and .956 Sv%.
The expected battle between SKA Saint Petersburg and CSKA Moscow playoff battle never really materialized as SKA swept the series in four games. Before the series started, CSKA lost star forward Alexander Radulov to a bad concussion, which proved too big a loss to overcome. Game three was very controversial because of the referees who made a number of questionable calls. After the game, the KHL announced that the four officials would not work another game in these playoffs, more or less acknowledging suspect officiating.
Lev Prague defeated Medvescak Zagreb by a count of four games to two. Lev won the series on the strength of their strong offence, scoring three or more goals in every game. Medvescak must be happy though just to have made the playoffs in their first year playing in the KHL.
The Dinamo Riga and Donbass Donetsk series was back and forth affair, concluding with an exciting game seven. Donbass started series with two home wins and Dinamo was in bad situation. The latter proved they would be no pushover when they won game 3 in Riga, 7-3. Donbass would win game four to take a 3-1 series lead. However, Dinamo drew inspiration from five players who injured at the start of the playoffs. While those five players didn’t play, they served as inspiration in the Dinamo win. Heading back to Riga, they were able to get another win in front of their home crowd and forced a game seven. Game seven had to be played in Bratislava, Slovakia due to the situation unfolding in Ukraine, meaning it was a neutral site game. Donbass’ all-Finnish line came up big and played their best leading the team to victory. Finnish forward Teemu Laine was named the best player of the first round with six goals and nine points in the series. Kley Wilsons led all defencemen with six points in the first round.
Eastern Division
The series pitting Metallurg Magnitogorsk versus Vladivostok Admiral was a mismatch. The Admirals just couldn’t contain Metallurg’s first line of Danis Zaripov, Jan Kovar and Sergei Mozyakin, who combined for 205 points in the regular season. They continued to score in the playoffs and led Magnitogorsk to a five-game victory over the Admirals.
Ak Bars Kazan was upset by Sibir Novosibirk Region in six games. Ak Bars won the Gagarin cup in the first two KHL seasons and always played as champions, but this year they got stopped by a team that has never made the second round before. One of the best players in the series was Sibir defenceman Aleksandr Kutuzov who was named as best defenceman in first round. Although he got just two points (1+1), he was strong at both ends and was a +7 in six games.
The series between Salavat Yulaev Ufa and Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod was the best in the Eastern Conference as it went the full seven games. Ufa were clear favorites in the match-up as they were past Gagarin Cup winners, having won the competition in the third KHL season. However, Torpedo led by new coach Peteris Skudra (ex NHLer, played as a goalie) with his tough coaching style, managed to take one of the best teams in the league to the limit. In the end, UFA still won the series, but it wasn’t easy. Ufa defenseman Arturs Kulda played an average of 30 minutes per game and was one of the reasons Ufa made it to the second round. Not to be understated, another reason for their win was their young goalie Andrey Vasilevsky, who was named best rookie in the first round. In seven games he put up a .934 Sv% and 1.95 GAA.
Expected to be the best match-up in the east was Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist vs Astan Barys, but things didn’t go as expected. Both teams used to be outsiders, but Barys started big and led the Eastern Conference for nearly the whole season before falling to second at the very end. Avtomobilist made their first ever playoffs, which is a considerable accomplishment for them, but no team wants to be swept in the first round. That’s exactly what happened though, as Avtomobilist was eliminated 4-0.
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