EA SPORTS™ announced today that Evgeni Malkin is one of 16 NHL players who has advanced to the next round of the EA SPORTS NHL®13 Cover Vote presented by BlackBerry®. Beginning today on NHL.com at NHL.com/CoverVote, the cover vote campaign shifts to a 16-player bracket format as players compete in head-to-head matchups for a spot in the quarterfinals. The winner of the cover vote campaign will be unveiled as the EA SPORTS NHL® 13 Cover Athlete at the 2012 NHL Awards™ on June 20 at the Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas.

NHL®13 Cover Vote Round of 16 Breakdown Bracket A Bracket B Claude Giroux vs. P.K. Subban Pavel Datsyuk vs. T.J. Oshie Scott Hartnell vs. Tyler Seguin Henrik Lundqvist vs. Erik Karlsson Evgeni Malkin vs. Steven Stamkos Pekka Rinne vs. Patrick Sharp Anze Kopitar vs. David Perron Jordan Eberle vs. John Tavares

NHL 13 Cover Athlete Voting Schedule:

April 25 – May 2: Round of 16 – Bracket A matchups open for voting

May 3 – May 10: Round of 16 – Bracket B matchups open for voting

May 11 – May 23: Quarterfinals

May 24 – May 28: Semifinals

May 29 – June 4: Finals

Presented by BlackBerry® and hosted on NHL.com, the campaign gives fans the opportunity to select the face of the EA SPORTS NHL® franchise. Fans worldwide are able to vote an unlimited number of times and are encouraged to vote as often as possible at http://www.nhl.com/covervote to ensure their favorite player advances through the rounds. Fans can also get involved and tweet their support by using #NHL13Cover on Twitter.