The Gagarin Cup Final Is Underway

Well, what do you know. It's mid-morning on Friday and there is already a hockey game in the books today.

Avangard Omsk Oblast defeated visiting Dynamo Moscow, 2-1, in the opening game of the Gagarin Cup Finals in the Kontinental Hockey League. Roman Cervenko and Alexander Perezhogin scored for Avangard, which emerged from the Eastern Conference after winning best-of-seven series against Amur Khabarovsk, Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Traktor Chelyabinsk. Dynamo Moscow came to the finals after winning Western Conference series against Dinamo Minsk, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and SKA St. Petersburg.

The action can be viewed live on YouTube each game day. To quickly access the day's game, click on the YouTube logo in Gagarin Cup banner, which is atop the KHL web site.

But you must get up early for these games. Omsk is in southwest Siberia, so do the math or get a time converter to judge just what 2 pm (or 1400 hours) Moscow time means to you and your sleep pattern. Dynamo's games in Moscow have a little better starting time. A final note, the KHL schedules list the home team first or on top.

Here's a little preview of the teams attempting to be the fourth winner of the Gagarin Cup.

And here is a wiki page that lists the teams in the league, past winners of the Gagarin Cup and a few notable players in the four-year history of the KHL. Note that there will be a new playoff scoring champion this spring. Alexander Radulov was the scoring champ in the last two tournaments, but his Salavat Yulaev Ufa squad was bounced by Ak Bars Kazan in the first round. And I don't think the KHL will combine RaDOOOO's figures in that series with any numbers he posts for the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Oh well. Even RaDOOOO cannot have everything.

Here is the recap of today's game.

Enjoy.