Brooklyn's KHL games being moved back to Russia

Mike Brehm, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

On the day that the NHL is expected to announce another round of cancellations, the Kontinental Hockey League joined the fray.

The Russia-based league announced Friday that its foray into North America -- Jan. 19-20 games between SKA St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow -- would no longer be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The games will be held instead on Jan. 20 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and on Jan. 22 in Moscow.

The KHL announced that the move was being made "in deference to the wishes of many thousands of Russian hockey fans ... and the lack of certainty as to the timing of the duration of the lockout in the National Hockey League,"

Dynamo, the defending league champion, and SKA rank first and second in the KHL in points and would draw big crowds if the games were held in Russia.

U.S.-based KHL spokesman Shawn McBride said the Brooklyn games, while generating a lot of buzz, had never been fully formalized and no tickets had been put on sale.

"The teams heard from their fans a strong desire to keep these two, late-season premier matchups in Russia and appealed to the league to do so," McBride said. "After much discussion, the decision was made to satisfy the interests of the fans of the respective clubs.

"The KHL is going to continue working with Barclays Center to determine potential opportunities in the future."

The matchup, assuming the NHL was still out by then, would have featured SKA's Ilya Kovalchuk, the New Jersey Devils star, vs. Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin. The two had faced off on Sept. 23 in Russia and SKA won 3-1 in a match that was touted as Ovi vs. Kovi. Kovalchuk ranks eighth in the KHL with 20 points in 12 games and Ovechkin has 14 points in 14 games.

SKA is also the lockout home of Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and St. Louis Blues prospect Vladimir Tarasenko, along with former NHL player Maxim Afinogenov. Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom plays for Dynamo.

Brooklyn had been chosen as the site of the games because of the new arena and because the borough has a large Russian population.

The KHL has already made inroads on U.S. television during the lockout with some games being shown on ESPN3 and an agreement to show games on MSG Network.

The KHL announcement takes place during the week that Barclays Center was in the news for landing the New York Islanders, starting in the 2015-16 season.

The NHL is expected to announce more cancellations Friday after the league-announced Thursday deadline for holding a full season passed quietly without negotiations. The lockout was in its 41st day on Friday.