Russian Superleague

The Russian Superleague (Russian: Чемпионат России Суперлига, Russian Championship Superleague), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was considered the second best league in the world, after the National Hockey League (NHL) of North America.^[1] It was a part of the Russian Pro Hockey League which was composed of three divisions — the Superleague, Major League (Vysshaya Liga), and First League (Pervaya Liga).

At the conclusion of the 2007–08 season, the Russian Super League was disbanded. It has since been replaced by the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

History[]

The origins of the Superleague are in the old Soviet League, which was founded in 1946. The Soviet era was dominated by the Red Army-affiliated CSKA Moscow, who won 32 of the 46 championships. The league lasted until 1992 due to the Soviet Union's collapse. After its transformation into the International Hockey League, the league was rechristened the Russian Hockey League in 1996. From 1996 to 1999, league membership was Russian-only. In 1999, membership was open and the league went international, and was renamed the Russian Superleague.

Competition[]

The competition consisted of the regular season and the play-off. The games were played in accordance with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) rules.

During the regular season, each team faced each other team three times (twice at home/once away, or once at home/twice away). Each team played 57 games during the regular season. If a game was drawn, a five-minute sudden death overtime was played, followed by a shootout. Three points were awarded for a win in regulation, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for a overtime or shootout loss, and no points for a loss in regulation.

The 16 teams with the best regular season records qualified for the playoffs. Each playoff round was a best-of-five series. In each round, the teams were paired according to the regular season performance. The top team was paired with the bottom team, the second ranked team was paired with the team with the second worst regular season performance, and so on. The higher ranked team played games one, two, and five on home ice.

2006-07 teams[]

2007-08 season[]

Regular season ends at 1 March 2008.

#	Team	GP	W	WО	WS	LО	LБ	L	Goals		±G	Штр	P	%P
1	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	57	37	2	3	1	3	11	183	119	+64	930	125	73,10
2	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	57	31	4	4	3	3	12	175	113	+62	940	115	67,25
3	CSKA Moscow	57	30	4	2	3	3	15	190	139	+51	1191	108	63,16
4	Khimik Moscow Oblast	57	29	3	4	2	2	17	189	135	+54	1085	105	61,40
5	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	57	29	2	3	4	0	19	167	148	+19	876	101	59,06
6	SKA Saint Petersburg	57	29	1	4	2	1	20	143	130	+13	991	100	58,48
7	Ak Bars Kazan	57	28	3	2	0	5	19	182	142	+40	1384	99	57,89
8	Avangard Omsk Oblast	57	24	5	2	3	1	22	172	154	+18	966	90	52,63
9	Dynamo Moscow	57	19	2	6	3	6	21	138	148	-10	1319	82	47,95
10	HC MVD Moscow Oblast	57	20	1	7	2	3	24	148	155	-7	909	81	47,37
11	Spartak Moscow	57	21	1	2	2	7	24	129	151	-22	826	78	45,61
12	Lada Togliatti	57	21	1	3	4	2	26	140	156	-16	983	77	45,03
13	Severstal Cherepovets	57	18	4	4	4	3	24	148	158	-10	913	77	45,03
14	Traktor Chelyabinsk	57	20	2	3	2	4	26	162	186	-24	1523	76	44,44
15	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	57	16	1	7	1	7	25	125	144	-19	1224	72	42,11
16	Amur Khabarovsk	57	17	3	4	2	4	27	122	160	-38	989	71	41,52
17	Metallurg Novokuznetsk	57	16	6	1	5	2	27	131	174	-43	1007	69	40,35
18	Vityaz Chekhov	57	16	2	4	0	7	28	151	181	-30	1843	67	39,18
19	Sibir Novosibirsk	57	17	0	1	5	4	30	121	182	-61	908	62	36,26
20	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	57	13	2	4	2	2	34	125	166	-41	901	55	32,16

Playoff[]

Round of 16: 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10 March
- Salavat Yulaev - Amur 3-1 (2-1, 2-0, 2-3, 7-2)
- Metallurg Mg - Neftekhimik 3-2 (4-1, 3-4, 4-2, 2-3, 4-1)
- CSKA - Traktor 3-0 (6-0, 6-1, 3-2)
- Khimik - Severstal 2-3 (3-4, 3-2so, 1-2, 2-1, 2-3)
- Lokomotiv - Lada 3-1 (4-1, 3-0, 1-3, 6-4)
- SKA - Spartak 3-2 (3-0, 6-1, 1-7, 3-5, 4-0)
- Ak Bars - HC MVD 3-0 (6-2, 4-3so, 4-1)
- Avangard - Dynamo 1-3 (3-4, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3)
Quarter finals: 13, 14, 16, 17 and 19 March
- Salavat Yulaev - Severstal 3-0 (3-1, 2-1, 3-0)
- Metallurg Mg - Dynamo 3-2 (4-3s, 2-4, 2-3, 1-0s, 5-0)
- CSKA - Ak Bars 0-3 (0-6, 5-6, 2-3)
- Lokomotiv - SKA 3-1 (0-4, 5-1, 2-0, 2-1)
First semi final: 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30 March
- Salavat Yulaev - Ak Bars 3-1 (3-0, 1-2, 4-3, 4-3)
Second semi final: 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31 March
- Metallurg Mg - Lokomotiv 0-3 (0-2, 2-3, 1-2s)
Final: 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 April
- Salavat Yulaev - Lokomotiv

Champions[]