The KHL regular championship of the 2014-2015 season has come to an end. All 16 participants in the elimination games have been determined for the main trophy of the season - the Gagarin Cup.
The matches of the conference quarterfinals in the KHL begin on February 27th. According to the rules of the tournament, the confrontation is held up to four wins. At the same time, the team that took the higher place in the standings of its conference starts the games on its own field and has the advantage of its home stadium.
Following the results of the 2014-2015 KHL regular season, the following pairs formed in the West. Russian ice hockey champion - 2015 CSKA will begin a series of playoff games with the KHL rookie club of the same name from Sochi. CSKA from St. Petersburg will meet with the Nizhny Novgorod "Torpedo". The confrontation between the two-time Gagarin Cup winners, the Moscow “Dynamo”, with the two-time finalists of the tournament, the Yaroslavl “Lokomotiv”, is seen as very interesting. Muscovites have the advantage of their field. In this pair, experts do not exclude all seven games. The final quarterfinal pair of the West - "Jokerit" - "Dynamo" (Minsk). The newcomers of the KHL (Finnish hockey players) looked very strong in the regular season, which determined the advantage of their field in the first round of the playoffs for Jokerit.
In the East, no less interesting pairs of quarterfinalists have formed. The leader of the Eastern Conference "Ak Bars" will play with the Yekaterinburg "Avtomobilist". Opening of the season Novosibirsk "Siberia", which took second place in the East, will meet with the Chelyabinsk "Tractor". The pair Metallurg (Magnitogorsk) - Salavat Yulaev (Ufa) has always been considered a striking confrontation in the East. Last season, these clubs met in the final of the conference, and in the current Gagarin Cup they will converge in the first round. The last quarterfinal pair in the East is the meeting between Avangard Omsk and Barys Astana.
