ZhHL: KRS are regular season champions, semifinal series to begin March 6
Playoff hockey is just around the corner in Russia
The KRS Vanke Rays have two games remaining in their regular season schedule but they have already secured the first seed of the 2021 ZhHL Playoffs. KRS is entering the weekend with a record of 24-2-0 (70 points) and a +70 goal differential, putting them comfortably ahead of second-place Agidel Ufa, who have already finished their 28-game season with 60 points and a record of 20-7-1.
Alex Carpenter has all but locked-up the league scoring title with 52 points — 26 goals and 26 points — in 26 games. The only player with a chance of catching Carpenter is HK Tornado’s Anna Shokhina, who now trails carpenter by three points after racking up five points against SKSO yesterday.
Correction to a previous tweet:
— Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) February 23, 2021
Alex Carpenter will almost certainly win the @whl_ru scoring title. She has 52 pts in 26 games. Two games left for @KRSVankeRays in reg season.
Olga Sosina already played her last game of the season. She finished the year with 50 pts in 27 GP.
Carpenter and KRS will meet Biryusa in one semifinal and Agidel will play SKIF in the other. These are best-of-three series beginning on March 6 and wrapping up (if necessary) on March 10. The winners of the semifinals will meet for the final series which is a best-of-five series, scheduled to begin on March 15.
Dynamo-Neva St. Petersburg, HK Tornado, 7.62, and SKSO Yekaterinburg all finished outside of the playoff picture, with SKSO finishing at the bottom of the table with just two victories through 26 games of hockey — the same is true of 7.62. Clearly, there is still some work to be done in the ZhHL in regards to parity. Dynamo-Neva finished in fifth place, six points behind Biryusa which still has two games left to play before the postseason gets underway.
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