VHL weekly review

START OF THE WEEK

Under the leadership of Vladislav Khromykh, the Russian men's student national team started out at the 2017 Winter Universiade. The team, made up of VHL players, have got off to a flying start, thrashing South Korea 14:0 and Latvia 7:1 in their opening two matches. The team are certainly on course to defend their title from 2015!

HAT TRICK OF THE WEEK

In a crazy match between Chelmet and Bars which finished with a 6:5 win for Chelmet, their captain Alexander Tridchikov scored his first ever hat trick in his career. After the game, Alexander admitted that he had never scored three goals in one fixture either in the VHL or the MHL.

FORWARD OF THE WEEK

Toros forward Stanislav Golovanov, holding 41 points out of just 43 games (16+25), does now have more points than anyone else in the VHL at this present moment. The 33 year old is certainly proving that he still has it in him to play at a high level!

CHALLENGES

While Chelmet have a short VHL break, their interim head coach Igor Znarok will leave for the Russian under 18 national team which is preparing for a Five Nations tournament in Sweden. However, despite no matches being planned during Igor's time with the under 18's, Chelmet do have season deciding matches approaching immediately upon his return.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Egor Nazarov of Sputnik has been named the best goalkeeper. In two matches, he picked up two shutouts and saved all 55 shots against him.

Toros' Ilya Bochkov is the top defenseman. He gained four points (3+1) and a plus/minus rating of 2.

Forward Vyacheslav Andryuschenko, who plays for Zaurale, is the best player for his position. He got six points (3+3) in four matches and a +3 plus/minus rating.

SKA-Neva forward Ivan Larichev is the best VHL rookie. He scored two goals and a plus/minus rating of +2. 

Russian Ice Hockey Federation