Kharlamov Cup

The Kharlamov Cup (Russian: Кубок Харламова, Kubok Kharlamova) is the trophy presented to the winner of the Russian Junior Hockey League (MHL) playoffs, and is named after ice hockey player Valeri Kharlamov, considered to be one of the greatest ice hockey players of the World.

The cup was designed by Frank Meisler.

16 teams participate in the playoffs. Opening round, quarter-finals, semifinals and finals are a best-of-five series. The match for third place (played between the losing semifinalists) is a two-legged tie. First match for the third place is played on the home ice of the team that ended lower in the regular season standings.

The top 8 teams of the regular season (the teams with most points) of the Eastern Conference reach the playoffs together with the top 8 teams of the Western Conference. In the opening round of the playoffs the 1st team of the East is paired against the 8th team of the West and the 1st team of the West against the 8th team of the East, the 2nd team of the East against the 7th team of the West and so on. In the quarter-finals and semifinals pairings are not re-seeded. The bracket is as follows:

If the two teams that reach the finals or the match for the 3rd place occupied the same place in the regular season (for example the finals ale played between the 5th team of the West and the 5th team of the East) the home ice advantage goes to the team that has a better ratio of points to the total number of games played in the regular season. A ratio is used instead of the number of points because teams of the East and West play a different total number of games in the regular season. If the ratio is the same there are other tiebreaking criteria.

Best 4 teams of each division in the regular season reach the playoffs. Unlike the inaugural season teams from opposite conferences will only meet in the Kharlamov Cup finals and the match for third place because playoffs will consist of conference 1/4-finals, conference 1/2-finals and conference finals, all of which are best-of-5 series. The Kharlamov Cup finals between the Western conference playoffs winner and Eastern conference playoffs winner will be a best-of-7 series. The match for third place will be a two-legged tie as in the inaugural season.

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Wikipedia