The best of the VHL quarter-finals

DRAMA IN SAINT PETERSBURG

SKA-Neva, a team which finished in second place of the VHL regular season, faced HC Rubin Tyumen. Despite Rubin's troubles during the regular season, they were a force to be reckoned with, winning their first round series 4:0 just like SKA-Neva. As many predicted, the series went all the way to seven games. Rubin eventually took it 4:3 in a dramatic seventh match away in Saint Petersburg. Nevertheless, despite their defeat, SKA-Neva recorded their best ever result in the VHL by reaching round two of the Bratina Cup playoffs.

SARYARKA MISSED OUT ON THE SEMI-FINALS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Never before had HC Saryarka Karaganda missed out on the VHL playoff semi-finals. However, this time around they failed to reach the last four. Despite Saryarka boasting KHL winners such as forward Mikhail Anisin, they fell to Zauralye, a club from Kurgan which has qualified for the semi-finals for the first time in its history.

DYNAMO BALASHIKHA MAKE THE LAST FOUR

Beating Sputnik 4:1 in their series, Dynamo Balashikha will now face Zauralye in the semi-finals. The remaining quarter-final match-up saw Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk meet VHL league debutants Dynamo Saint Petersburg, and the regular season winners from Kazakhstan saw off their Russian opponents in a tight series 4:3. 

LEAGUE RECORDS

25 matches were played overall out of the 28 possible. This is a repeat of the previous VHL record from the 2012/2013 and 2014/2015 seasons. Also, only one of the top five seeds made it as far as the semi-finals. All of the others have already fallen by the wayside.

HEROES

The best goalkeeper is HC Rubin's Denis Franskevich. He stopped 95.1% of shots and claimed a 1.74 goals against average. Denis also earned two shutouts in the series against SKA-Neva.

Torpedo's Jordon Southorn is the top defenseman. Jordan picked up two points (1+1) and a plus/minus rating of +4.

Dmitry Markovin of Dynamo Balashikha is the number one forward. In his series, Dmitry gained nine points (4+5) and a +6 plus/minus rating.

The best VHL rookie is Dynamo Saint Petersburg's Semyon Ruchkin. He got one assist and a plus/minus rating of +5.

SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP

Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk (1) versus Rubin Tyumen (10);

Dynamo Balashikha (6) versus Zauralye Kurgan (8).

Series will begin on the 29th and 30th of April.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation