OMSK, Russia – Prior to their first KHL 1/8-final game against Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, Avangard Omsk named Raimo Summanen their new head coach.

Igor Nikitin, the former head coach, will remain in the coaching staff as an assistant coach. Avangard also hired Vasili Tikhonov, the son of the legendary Soviet national team coach Viktor Tikhonov, as an assistant coach.

Summanen led Finland to the silver medal in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey before becoming the GM of the Espoo Blues and most recently he was the head coach of Swiss club Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. However, he had to leave both the Finnish national team and Rapperswil due to personal issues with the players. Before that, the former NHL player led Jokerit Helsinki and TPS Turku to Finnish league titles.

Now Avangard Omsk hopes that Summanen can bring the Jaromir Jagr-led team to the top of the league after two disappointing years.

From 2001 to 2007, Avangard never finished lower than fourth and became Russian champion in 2004.

The downfall started in 2008, when Avangard finished the regular season in eighth place and lost in the first playoff round.

In 2009, Avangard performed even worse, finishing 16th in the 24-team league, but they could make up for their disappointing regular season campaign by eliminating first-seeded Salavat Yulayev Ufa in the first round before losing to Ak Bars Kazan in overtime of the all-deciding quarterfinal game.

This time, Avangard was fifth in the Eastern Conference and 11th overall. They will begin their playoff campaign today with a two-game road trip to Nizhnekamsk.

Already on Wednesday the playoffs in the Western Conference opened with a major surprise. Dinamo Riga defeated conference winner SKA St. Petersburg 2-0 in the Baltic Sea clash. A first period goal from Mikelis Redlihs and an empty-netter from Martin Kariya were enough to upset the strongest regular-season team after Salavat. Latvian national team goalkeeper Edgars Masalskis had 27 saves.

Also other top-four teams struggled as Dynamo Moscow (3rd) lost the Moscow derby against Spartak 4-3 in overtime and Atlant Mytishchi (4th) was defeated 2-1 by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Only second-seeded MVD Balashikha fulfilled their expectations with a 3-1 victory against CSKA Moscow.

MARTIN MERK