Eurolanche

Varlamov the best goalie in the KHL

Semyon Varlamov has become the best Colorado Avalanche player who played somewhere during the lockout period. Russian goalie was shining from a game to game, and mainly thanks to him, his team of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl had been at the top positions in the standings for longer time. Firstly, there were reports that Lokomotiv is not going to sign any NHL player; actually Varlamov was one of the first NHL players who left North America in September.

Varlamov played his first KHL game on 2^nd October against Dinamo Minsk. He showed the following direction of his KHL career in that game. Varly saved 38 of 39 shots and contributed to a win 2:1. Another great performance came in the game against one of the top teams in the league, Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Lokomotiv was losing 0:2, but Varlamov´s 40 saves helped to a win in the shootouts. The same result came in the following game, when Varlamov had 37 saves. Totally after five games, Varlamov won four of them and his save percentage was 93.4 %.

Semyon earned his first KHL shutout in his sixth game against Severstal Cherepovets. Final score 2:0 and 24 saves. But Varlamov showed his best performance in the next game against Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk – he saved 55 shots (hard to believe) and allowed just one goal. Lokomotiv won the hard game again in the shootouts. Colorado Avalanche goalie took a rest for the following two games, but was back later with another great game. He saved all 32 shots of HC Slovan Bratislava at the home ice, what was his second shutout in the last three games. Totally after ten games, Varlamov won eight of them, allowed only 1.75 goals per game and 94.8 % was his save percentage.

Lokomotiv Yaroslav played back-to-back games with CSKA Moscow at the end of November. Varlamov played in both of them and Lokomotiv won – both of them. Firstly, Varly saved 31 of 33 shots and secondly saved all 34 shots, and gained his third shutout. Meanwhile he was named for the best goalie of the week and later was nominated to the KHL All-Star Game (it is scheduled for the next Sunday, but Varlamov is already in Denver and will not play). Unfortunately, Semyon suffered a knee injury in the second game with CSKA and had to take a rest for the next month. With his departure from Lokomotiv´s net, also team´s nine-game winning streak had ended.

Varlamov was back after seven-game break and immediately saved 24 of 25 shots of Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg´s players. In the next game, he faced to Magnitogorsk for the second time for the season, but now with Ryan O´Reilly on the roster. Varlamov did not play in the game from the start, but finally was there for the final minutes and did not allow a goal. His second-to-last game was played against Omsk, but Varly´s 34 saves did not help to win it. Finally, he said goodbye to his Russian fans by huge loss 0:4 against SKA Saint Petersburg.

Sum up, Varlamov started in 15 games for Lokomotiv and won 11 of them – three wins in the shootouts. He saved 476 of 503 shots (27 goals allowed), what is 94.6 save percentage and 1.74 goals per game. He earned three shutouts, four PIM and played for 928 minutes. He was still the best KHL goalie in major stats even at the end of the lockout.

As you can see, Varlamov definitely was the best goalie in the KHL during his experience with the Lokomotiv and there is no need to add more. Maybe only one stat. From overall 16 games, he allowed more than two goals in one game only for three times – one three goals and two times four goals.

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