CSKA hockey players beat Kazan's Ak Bars» and for the third time in history became the owners of the trophy.
The final series ended with the score 4-3 (1:4, 3:0, 3:2, 2:1, 1:2, 0:3, 3:2). CSKA forward Mikhail Grigorenko was recognized as the most valuable player in the playoffs. He also became the top scorer and sniper of the cup part of the season, scoring 25 points (12 goals + 13 assists).
Continental Hockey League (KHL)29 April 2023 • Start at 17:00End
Ak BarsRussia2 : 3 15 • Anton Slepyshev (Andrey Svetlakov)
30:12 • Vladislav Kamenev (Sergei Plotnikov)
31:28 • Darren Dietz (Konstantin Okulov)
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SKA is the winner of the regular season, Torpedo is the main opening of the seasonThe jubilee, 15th season in the history of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) started on September 1 with the traditional Opening Cup. A strong-willed victory over Metallurg Magnitogorsk was won by CSKA (6:2), but such a successful start did not help Sergei Fedorov's team become the best in the regular season. The first place was taken by SKA St. Petersburg, which carried out a large-scale selection in the off-season and strengthened the squad with forwards Dmitry Yashkin, Marat Khairullin and Damir Zhafyarov, defenders Alexander Nikishin and Andrey Pedan. Already in the course of the season, forward Nikita Gusev returned to SKA, who scored 49 points (23 + 26) in 37 championship matches. The army team from St. Petersburg won 50 victories in the regular season and won the Continental Cup. This trophy was the first for Roman Rotenberg as a head coach. Yashkin scored 40 goals and scored 62 points, becoming the KHL's top scorer in the 2022/23 season.
The real discovery of the championship was a spectacular game of the Nizhny Novgorod «Torpedo». In the off-season, the three-time Stanley Cup winner, the former center forward of the USSR national team Igor Larionov, became the new head coach of the team, and in a short time he was able to deliver a combination game to the Torpedo team, which the fans immediately fell in love with and brought a lot of problems to the usual favorites of the season. “Torpedo”, despite a limited budget and a modest composition, took fourth place in the Western Conference and only slightly lost to the more stellar CSKA and Yaroslavl “Locomotive”. Of the surprises with a «minus» sign, one can note that Spartak Moscow did not qualify for the playoffs.
The failure of Znark, the triumphant return of BilyaletdinovIn the East, great expectations were associated with Ak Bars, which was headed by Oleg Znarok in the summer. Under the name of the former head coach of the Russian national team, forwards Alexander Radulov, Vadim Shipachev, Stanislav Galiev, Kirill Semenov, as well as defender Vyacheslav Voinov were invited. Znarok did not agree when his team was called the Dream Team, although it was significantly superior in composition to its competitors. “Ak Bars” started the season unconvincingly, and for some time was even out of the playoff zone. In early December, Znarok resigned, and three weeks later Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who had not coached since 2019, took his place.
Under the leadership of Bilyaletdinov, “Ak Bars” has added significantly. The team finished the championship in first place in the Eastern Conference and showed a stable game, which Znarka's team could not boast of. Chelyabinsk «Tractor» became a disappointment in the East — at the finish of the championship, the Urals lost their place in the playoffs to «Neftekhimik» from Nizhnekamsk. 
Third Gagarin Cup for CSKA The first round of the KHL playoffs brought some unexpected results. Ufa «Salavat Yulaev» did not cope with the goalkeeper of the Vladivostok «Admiral» Nikita Serebryakov and lost the series 2-4. Torpedo passed the more titled Dynamo Moscow, although experts believed that Larionov's style was not suitable for cup games. Kazan's Ak Bars, who won in six matches, also suffered with Neftekhimik, while CSKA needed all 7 games in the series with Cherepovets Severstal.
Also, the series of CSKA with Lokomotiv in the semi-finals of the Western Conference dragged on for seven games. When their main competitors for the Gagarin Cup rested, the army team played hard matches. But the unhurried movement towards the goal did not prevent us from becoming the best team of the season.
In the final of the West, the team of Sergei Fedorov defeated SKA (4-2), and in the battle for the Gagarin Cup they were stronger than Ak Bars. After the defeat in Kazan in the first match of the series, the army team won three meetings in a row, despite several injuries in the squad.
The final could have ended on April 25 in Kazan, when, after a beautiful goal by Prokhor Poltapov, the Muscovites took the lead 1:0. “Ak Bars” was able to bounce back and win (2:1), and two days later in Moscow, Bilyaletdinov's team achieved a “dry” victory (3:0) and turned the series into a decisive match. On Saturday, the day of the 100th anniversary of the formation of CSKA, the army team achieved a strong-willed victory (3:2) in Kazan thanks to goals from Slepyshev, Kamenev and Dietz. CSKA won the Gagarin Cup for the third time in history (2019, 2022, 2023).
The next KHL season is scheduled to start on September 1, 2023. The Togliatti Lada will appear in the league, and the limit on legionnaires will be tightened — now teams can have no more than three foreigners. Also in the KHL may change the regulations for the playoffs. It is expected that from the second round it will be cross-over, so that the teams of the Eastern and Western conferences will be able to face each other not only in the finals.