TEAM OF THE WEEK

Seven VHL players won World Junior Championship bronze with Valery Bragin's under 20 Russian national team. The crucial victory came against Sweden, where Denis Guryanov netted the overtime winner.

Player list:

Goalkeepers: Anton Krasotkin (HC Ryazan), Vladislav Sukhachyov (HC Chelmet Chelyabinsk).

Defensemen: Artyom Volkov (Dynamo Balashikha).

Forwards: Danila Kvartalnov, Pavel Karnaukhov (both HC Zvezda Chekhov), Denis Alexeev (HC Ryazan), Danil Yurtaykin (HC Ryazan).

All of them have played at least one VHL match this campaign.

WEEK EVENTS

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation have presented the jerseys which Dynamo Balashikha and Khimik Voskresensk will wear for the 2017 VHL Russian Classic, an outdoor match which will take place at Moscow's Legends Park on January 14th. Tickets are still available if you wish to attend, you can purchase them on kassir.ru or at the Legends Park ticket offices. They cost between 100 and 200 roubles.

Puck drop is scheduled for 12:00 local time!

SERIES OF THE WEEK

SKA-Neva, HC SKA Saint Petersburg's VHL farm club, have already strung together nine consecutive victories! The last time that SKA-Neva was back on the 30th of November, a disappointing loss to THC Tver. Only one more victory is needed to make it ten!

On the other hand, Yuzhniy Ural have dropped six defeats on the bounce, while Khimik have failed to win for seven matches.

Timur Bilyalov, who won the VHL last season with Neftyanik, put in a sturring performance against his old team, saving 43 shots to earn HC Bars a tight 1:0 victory over the Tatarstan rivals.

AWARDS

Rishat Gimaev, who coached Neftyanik to the VHL in 2016, was named Tatarstan's join top sports coach of the year! 

Referees Anton Gofman, Ivan Zibinin and Sergei Cherezov have all been promoted to the KHL. After refereeing two matches, the KHL will review their future prospects in the league. 

PLAYERS OF THE MONTH

Pavel Poluektov, who plays for Torpedo, has been Decenber's top goaltender. He earned three shutouts, a 95.9 saves percentage and a goals against average of 0.98.

Fellow Torpedo teammate Mike Dalhuisen is the best defenseman, He tallied up four points (1+3) and a +8 plus/minus rating.

Toros' Stanislav Golovanov is the number one forward, having taken eight points (6+2) and a plus minus rating of +9.

The best newbie is Torpedo forward Nikita Mikhaylis. He picked up five points (4+1), two winning goals and a +5 rating.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation