Eight play-off games took place in the Russian Hockey Superleague on Sunday. Avangard, who finished 2nd in the regular season, defeated Vityaz on the home ice 5-1.

Sideline antics from Vityaz coach Mike Krushelinsky proved no help in helping his side to overturn Avangard. Pervushin opened the scoring for Avanguard nine minutes in. Then at the end of the first period Aleksey Cherepanov squeezed himself through the Vityaz defenders and doubled Avangard’s advantage. In the second period both sides scored, taking the score to 3-1 going into the third period. In the ninth minute Avanguard made the most of a powerplay with defender Aleksey Troschinsky making it 4-1. The rout was completed a minute before the final whistle. Anton Kuryanov sealed an emphatic 5-1 win. So Avangard make their first step to the quarter-final.

In the other games there were also no surprises. Sunday saw all the top seeds record wins. Sibir, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Salavat Yulaev, AK Bars, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Khimik took a 1-0 lead in the best of five series.