Junior Hockey League media relations department continues the series of jubilee season reviews for every team. Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk enjoyed a very promising regular season and once again made the playoffs. However, they couldn’t go for a deep run as they got eliminated in the opening round.

Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk
4^th place in the Eastern Conference. 83 points in 60 games. 203 goals for, 135 goals against

Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk once again put their high skill on display in the regular season. ‘Steel Foxes’ are the only other team with Almaz Cherepovets that appeared in every single Junior Hockey League post-season. Head-coach Dmitry Stulov was at the helm for the second year. Under his command Magnitogorsk once again were very productive offensively and finished third in that department in Eastern Conference. Last year the team had finished the regular season second in the conference, while this time they sank to the fourth spot. Magnitogorsk managed to avoid slumps all year, excluding moderate December when the team lost a total of six games. Nevertheless, Stalnye Lisy made up for it in early January as they enjoyed an 11-game winning streak, which practically ensured a post-season berth for them. Magnitogorsk finished the regular season on a sad note as they lost three games out of four, including a 6-3 defeat from Ladiya Togliatti, while Irbis blew past the ‘Foxes’ in Kazan 7-0.

Notable players

Every year Magnitogorsk’s roster boast one forward who exhibits fantastic productivity in the regular season. Last year it was Konstantin Dubin, while in the 2018-19 season Nikita Rozhkov took his spot and was named rookie of the season. Rozhkov began filling the net night in and night out right from the beginning of the regular season, adding a pile of assists as well. Rozhkov finished the season with 63 points in 57 games. Yuri Platonov, Dmitry Sheshin and no other but Dubin, who didn’t spend the entire season with the team, ended up just a few points behind. Pavel Dorofeyev and Yegor Spiridonov represented Stalnye Lisy at the 2019 JHL Challenge Cup. Gleb Babintsev proved to be a decent playmaker. Nikita Kamyshnikov, who was Magnitogorsk’s starting goaltender last season, split his ice-time with Alexei Schetilin this time around. The latter made his debut in the league’s jubilee season.

Top-scorer: Nikita Rozhkov – 63 (28 goals, 35 assists) points
Top goal-scorer: Nikita Rozhkov – 28 goals
Most assists: Nikita Rozhkov – 35 assists
Top defenseman: Gleb Babintsev – 24 (3 goals, 21 assists) points, plus-36
Starting goaltender: Alexei Schetilin – 37 games, 18 wins, Goals Against Average – 2.00, Save Percentage – 0.934 on average per game

Playoffs

Stalnye Lisy were swept by Omskie Yastreby in three games in the opening round of the playoffs. Magnitogorsk opened scoring in Game 1 but the visitors looked a better team and ended up winning the bout 5-2.

The following day Omsk enjoyed another win. This time around it was a real goal-fest as the visitors won 6-5. Alexander Yaremchuk scored the game-winning goal with just three minutes remaining to play in regulation. Game 3 was held in Omsk and ended with a 2-2 tie after 60 minutes of play. Ilya Badanin scored the series-clinching goal in the last minute of the first overtime period. He received the puck from Alexei Zubov, broke into the zone and took a shot from mid-range. The puck crossed the line and sent Magnitogorsk on vacation.

Top-scorer: Yegor Spiridonov – 3 (2 goals, 1 assists) points
Top goal-scorer: Konstantin Dubin – 2 goals
Most assists: Pavel Dorofeyev – 2 assists
Top defenseman: Gleb Babintsev – 1 (1 goal, 0 assists) points, plus-1
Starting goaltender: Nikita Kamyshnikov – 2 games, 0 wins, Goals Against Average – 5.27, Save Percentage – 0.833 on average per game