Radulov's hat-trick, Gusev's four points and Volkov's departure from Avangard: the main events of the week in the KHL

Gusev's benefit performance and records of Khokhlacheva and Ip

Last week in the regular season of the Kontinental Hockey League was remembered by a number of colorful individual performances.

Once again, Nikita Gusev was in the spotlight.

The star striker returned to SKA only at the beginning of November, but has already managed to score ten (5 + 5) points and climb to 12th place in the list of the team's top scorers of the season.

And this despite the fact that his "competitors" held more than 20 meetings more.

It is noteworthy that he scored almost half of the points in the confrontation with Dynamo Minsk.

SKA won with a score of 7:2, and Gusev scored once himself, and helped his partners do it three times.

Moreover, twice he assisted the Czech forward Dmitry Yashkin, who occupies the third line in the KHL sniper race (16).

According to this indicator, he is second only to Avangard's Reed Bush (19) and Avtomobilist's Brandon Maysek (22).

As for Nikita, the last time he was noted for more than three effective actions per game was in March - and also in a match with the Belarusian team.

The Petersburgers defeated their opponents 8:3 on their ice, and the Russian broke out with a goal and five assists.

Among other things, the match between SKA and Dynamo turned out to be historic for another reason.

In the third period, opponents scored seven goals in 9 minutes 44 seconds, which had never happened before in the KHL.

Until now, the record rate of fire was 10 minutes 19 seconds - it took Sibir and Ak Bars so much in 2009 to hit each other's gates seven times.

In turn, Alexander Khokhlachev continues to grow among the legends of Spartak.

In a meeting with Severstal, he helped organize the fourth puck (4: 2) and came out on top in the list of the best red and white assistants.

He had 113 passes to his credit, which helped him get around Branko Radivojevic.

And if the striker also scores regularly, then by the end of this championship he can reach the first line in all key indicators.

Now he is already leading in assists and points (193), and in accurate shots (80) he is only behind Stefan Ruzicka (90).

Brandon Yip continues to amaze with his productivity.

In one evening, the Canadian not only set the Kunlun record for the longest hitting streak (nine meetings), but also became the sixth oldest hat-trick writer in the KHL (37 years 6 months 18 days).

At a later age, only Jaromir Yagr, Sergei Mozyakin, Andrei Subbotin, Maxim Afinogenov and Oleg Petrov succeeded in this.

But the Red Star forward is still far from reaching the Atlanta striker.

At that time, he was almost 40 years old.

An extremely rare event also happened in the match between Vityaz and Neftekhimik.

Opponents scored nine goals for two, and Nizhnekamsk took over with a minimum difference in the score.

But it was curious that two hockey players managed to score three goals at once.

As part of the Balashikha team, Kirill Rasskazov did this, and for the Nizhnekamsk team, Pavel Poryadin.

Moreover, the forward of the "wolves" scored 13 seconds before the siren.

Fairy Radulova and a fan who ran out onto the ice

A few days later, the leader of Ak Bars followed the example of his colleagues.

In a principled confrontation with SKA, he scored three times and helped Kazan break a series of three defeats in a row (5:2).

Moreover, for the attacker himself, this hat-trick became the fourth during the performances of the KHL.

The last time he did something like this was 7 years 279 days ago.

In February 2015, he took part in the beating of Slovan, which ended with a score of 12:0.

Until now, this victory remains the largest in the history of the championship.

However, the meeting was remembered for a number of other events.

So, Gusev again pleased his personal fans and scored two (1 + 1) points, and Nikita Komarov, on the contrary, scored with a minus sign.

In the second period, he first had an unsuccessful fight with Dmitry Voronkov, and then hit the defender of Kazan Nikita Evseeva with his knee.

He was only able to leave the ice with the help of his partners, and the St. Petersburg hockey player was removed before the end of the match.

However, the league leadership considered this punishment insufficient and suspended him for three games, adding to this a monetary fine.

Much more serious consequences await the fan who ran onto the ice of the Tatneft Arena at the end of the third period.

Although he did not harm any of the athletes and was quickly taken to the under-tribune room.

According to Sport BUSINESS Online, the Novo-Savinovsky District Court of Kazan ordered the fan to be arrested for ten days, and also banned him from attending sporting events over the next year.

It is noteworthy that Ak Bars is also at risk of suffering from his actions.

The club faces a fine of 500 thousand rubles.

Volkov's departure

At the same time, Avangard became one of the main newsmakers of the past week.

In April 2020, Alexei Volkov joined the club as a general manager, but left less than two years later.

Moreover, he announced this not through official sources, but in a conversation with Sport-Express.

And although the functionary spoke warmly about the "hawks", he indicated disagreements with the leadership as the main reason for the resignation.

“I made a very difficult decision for myself to leave the post of general manager of the Avangard hockey club.

It has not matured spontaneously, it has a background and a cumulative effect.

Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult for us and the club management to find mutual understanding on key and fundamental issues in the Avangard selection.

Therefore, today I am leaving the club, but consciously taking such a step at a time when Avangard emerged from the crisis after the change of head coach.

Today it is a stable, playing team that, together with Mikhail Grigoryevich Kravets, will be able to fight for the highest places,” Volkov said.

However, this parting did not work out calmly.

Two days later, Avangard announced the appointment of Rashid Khabibulin to the position of acting general manager, and then Alexander Krylov, chairman of the Omsk board of directors, made loud statements.

He called Volkov's act emotional and was outraged that he spoke about his resignation before the official announcement, and then moved on to reproaches.

According to the head, he was not satisfied with major personnel changes before each season, and at the end of his work in the team, the former general manager lost his grip.

“I tell you frankly, I never interfered in the formation of the composition during the work of Volkov.

He only helped with some surnames, when, obviously, Volkov himself could not resolve the issue - including, for example, by (Vladimir. -

) Tkachev.

What has been going on in the past few months, including proposals for those goalkeepers ... In my understanding, this is already a complete lack of control and unresolved issue.

Then, by and large, for the first time I intervened and vetoed such a decision.

I will say more, there were a few more points that were offered to us.

It was, once again I say, the complete impression that the person got lost and completely lost control over the process, ”Championship quotes Krylov.

Exchange between SKA and Severstal

While Avangard was dealing with personnel issues in the leadership, SKA pulled off one of the most discussed exchanges of the season.

The Petersburgers took the goalkeeper of Severstal Vladislav Podyapolsky, and in return they gave away two hockey players at once.

The goalkeeper of the Russian national team and the silver medalist of the Beijing Olympics Alexander Samonov, as well as the young defender Daniil Pylenkov, who took part in the youth world championship in 2020, went to Cherepovets.

At the tournament, the domestic team became the second, losing in the final to Canada.

And this step of the SKA leadership raises serious questions.

Firstly, the Petersburgers parted ways with two athletes at once, each of whom has a richer track record.

Secondly, we got a less quality goalkeeper, according to the statistics.

In the current regular season, Podyapolsky ranks 40th in the percentage of shots saved (89.5%) among goalkeepers who have played at least five meetings, while Samonov is in 15th line (93%).

He is inferior to his colleague in terms of reliability coefficient (2.78 - 1.89).

Therefore, the comments of the head coach of the army team Roman Rotenberg regarding the exchange may seem a little ambiguous.

“I had the opportunity to see Vlad personally, we played many head-to-head games with him, where Vlad showed a stable game against us.

We had great difficulties against him, and in the playoffs, in the Severstal series against Dynamo, it was very difficult for him to score.

And in Dynamo there are very serious guys - Shipachev, Yashkin.

This is a serious and not a spontaneous decision… Vlad always fights to the end, always played aggressively, he has serious experience.

In our understanding, this was the best we could do today.

We are grateful to Samonov and Pylenkov, we have no complaints against them.

I thanked them, but we are moving forward, ”said Rotenberg.

Samonov himself admitted that he learned about the transition to Seversatl by phone.

According to him, the management thanked him for the work done and said that "they are not on the way further."

“So the exchange took place.

Everything was within the bounds of decency, hockey is a business.

So I look to the future with hope.

It was a little unexpected, but this is my job.

I don’t see anything critical in this, from the word “absolutely,” Samonov assured.