Despite the setback they experienced in a hard fought OT loss against Dinamo Minsk and their standout, potentially soon-to-be Philadelphia-bound netminder Alexei Kolosov, SKA Saint Petersburg were undeterred in their next two games. On Wednesday, they soundly defeated Barys Astana 7-0 in a game where six players had multi-point nights and Nikita Serebryakov still managed to be tested in the crease despite the lopsided score, stopping 44 of 44 shots on goal. On Friday, they defeated their Army Derby adversaries CSKA Moscow 5-1 in a game where they saw some offensive resistance from their rivals in terms of aggression on the attack, but exploited Sergei Fedorov’s team’s weakness in defense to make for a difficult night for Ivan Fedotov. RW Arseni Gritsyuk (NJD, 129th overall, 2019 NHL Entry Draft) continues to impress, with a “brace” (to borrow an association football term I have not used in a while) in this game to follow up his 1g, 4a performance against Barys. Over the last four games, the winger has nine points and nineteen total across eleven games in the month of January. His performance the last month has established him as on one of the most impressive hot streaks in the KHL. Much of the success in head coach Roman Rotenberg’s squad’s stretch that clinched their playoff spot – and now has them first place in the Western Conference – can be owed to “Grits”. They will look to follow these victories up against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on Monday.

HC Sochi, meanwhile, have won four of their last five, and the last two were owed in large part to their returning young superstar. Playing on the first line in his first two games back after missing yet more times for reasons associated with his recent pneumonia battle, RW Matvei Michkov (PHI, 7th overall, 2023 NHL Entry Draft) tallied the primary assist on what ended up being the GWG by LW Artur Tyanulin against Lokomotiv in an upset 2-1 road victory against the first team to clinch a Gagarin Cup playoff spot on Wednesday. Sochi would then beat their closest competition in the form of Vityaz Moscow Region by a score of 3-2, with Michkov scoring on a rebound thanks to his very good nose for the net. This was also the eventual GWG, making Michkov a hero yet again in his return. Sochi are now in ninth place in the West, but still have a thirteen point gap between them and Dinamo Minsk for the last playoff spot. They will have to go on a run while simultaneously benefiting from a faltering Minsk to get that last spot before it becomes a mathematical impossibility. However, with Michkov on form and Dmitri Kokorev’s group likely very confident after this stretch, maybe it could happen. We shall see how the story continues to unfold when Sochi takes on Kunlun Red Star in the first home game of at least seven to take place at Shayba Arena (their usual venue is not available for the remainder of the 2023-24 regular season due to other commitments) on Sunday.