ASTANA, Nov. 12 – More than a third of the way into the Continental Hockey League’s (KHL) sixth season, Astana’s Barys is in third place in the league and at the head of the Chernyshev division.
Going into the current break in the season, Barys has earned 52 points to lead the Chernyshev division and has outscored other leading teams by nine points to hold the second spot in the Western conference. The Barys team has played fewer games than other leading teams and has yet to reach the top of the KHL. Barys has played 23 matches with five losses. That totals a 78 percent winning percentage.
Barys players have scored 91 goals this season, second in the KHL. Players trained by Ari-Pekka Selina have taken total of 709 shots on goal with success rate of 12.83 percent. This is the best in the KHL. Barys players have also received relatively few penalty minutes this season. They are ranked 17th among 28 teams in penalty minutes with 275 total minutes or 11:57 minutes per game.
The Kazakh team has scored 21 goals in 96 minutes of power play action this year for a 21.9 percent success rate. That is six among all teams in the KHL. However, the Barys have allowed 23 goals in 97 attempts and is ranked 27 in the KHL in protecting its net. Barys is ranked in first place in the KHL for goals scored during home games with 55. It is ranked fourth in the lead for goals scored during away games with 36 such goals.
Numerous Barys players also lead the KHL in individual statistics. Brandon Bochenski ranks third place among snipers with 14 goals. Mike Lundin is the third in the category Assistant of Defender with 10 assists. Mike Lundin is second among the league’s most valuable players and is second in the leauge in minutes played per game at 24:40 per game.
The 23 games so far have included a number of memorable events: Talgat Zhailauov and Nigel Dawes scored their 50th goals for the team. Roman Starchenko made his 50th assist and scored a point for his hundredth score with Barys. Andrei Gavrilin played in his 250th game and Roman Savchenko his 200th match for Barys. And goalkeeper Vitaly Eremeev scored a goal, the first of his career.
Barys will resume their KHL season on Nov. 13 in Riga where they will meet the local Dinamo team. Then will also play CSKA of Moscow, Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia and Lev (Lion) of Prague. The team will also play many more home games.
