Evgeny Artukhin’s violent assault on Dynamo’s Janne Jalasvaara has become the most discussed event of the week in KHL, with the SKA player getting a three-game ban for his action.

With a play-off spot safely secured, SKA St. Petersburg still has the regular season title to fight for.

Forward Evgeny Artyukhin took this literally as the former NHL player beat up Dynamo Moscow defenseman, Janne Jalasvaara.

The Finn was lucky to avoid a serious eye injury, while the hot-tempered Artyukhin was sin-binned and later given a three-match ban for his antics.

This meant he was on the sidelines as SKA went on to beat holders Dynamo 2-1, on Tuesday before drubbing rock-bottom Avtomobilist 4-1 – this time on home ice, on Saturday.

Third-placed Ak Bars Kazan suffered a 2-1 shootout loss to visiting Avangard in another big game of the week.

Dmitry Semin got the all-important goal to help the Hawks go three points behind KHL’s leaders SKA.

Severstal thrashed Amur 7-1 to ruin new coach Evgeny Popikhin's first match in charge, while the winning team’s keeper, Vasily Koshechkin, was named goaltender of the week for a second straight time.

Elsewhere, Metallurg Magnitogorsk suffered a bitter 4-1 defeat at local rivals Traktor in the Urals derby.

But top scorer Sergey Mozyakin did net Magnitka's only goal to take his league-leading tally to 33.

In other net-bulging action, Sergey Drozd volleyed in a freak goal, but it still wasn't enough to save Dynamo Minsk from a 2-1 loss at CSKA Moscow.

And it was Miks Indrasis from Dynamo Riga, who shone the brightest, as the Latvian posted a lacrosse-style goal to level the game at home to Lokomotiv.

But Dynamo still lost in a shootout before going down to Amur 4-2 in their next match.

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