Kunlun Red Star, the KHL’s Chinese team, is preparing for its first crack at the playoffs. On Wednesday, the Beijing organization heads to Magnitogorsk for the start of its first-round series against defending champion Metallurg. Not bad for a team that was still at the ideas stage this time last year.

The club’s progress – part of a broader strategy to promote hockey in China as Beijing prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics – has been impressive. In the face of significant challenges, from building a competitive roster from scratch to creating an all-new hockey audience, head coach Vladimir Yurzinov and his multi-national roster have delivered their first target and are determined to cause an upset in post-season.

Bringing hockey to China was a special challenge for Red Star’s recruits, and the players have been impressed by the potential for the game in the world’s most populous country. As for coping with the responsibility of attracting Chinese fans, the trick is to treat it like any other game.

Experienced forward Olexi Ponikarovsky reckons that the sense of responsibility was the same as at any club, but was also encouraged by the way interest in the game has grown during the season.

“Wherever you are, you’re a professional player and you go out on the ice and do your job so in one sense nothing changes,” he said. “But in China it took some time to get people used to the idea of watching a hockey team. At first, we didn’t see many fans coming to games. But things developed, more advertising brought more people into the building and they started to turn into fans. Over time I think all this will develop and get even better.”

Meanwhile, for goalie Tomi Karhunen, the increased support among Chinese fans has been matched by a flurry of interest back home in Finland.

“I think after Jokerit we are the KHL team that people in Finland like to follow,” he said. “It’s interesting, suddenly there’s a lot of Finnish guys playing hockey in China. It’s not all that common a thing, and I think people back home are really watching out for us.”

Attendances have steadily grown. In the autumn, while playing at a temporary home in Shanghai, Kunlun was struggling to get 1,000 people to games. By the end of the season, though, the rookie team had pulled in crowds of around 7,500 for games at Beijing’s LeSport Arena, one of the Olympic ice hockey venues for 2022. Numbers comparable with long-established Russian hockey teams.

And top scorer Chad Rau, who finished the season with 20+20=40 points, is thrilled to be able to reward those fans with a look at some playoff action.

“It’s really big for hockey here in China,” he said. “There’s a huge market that we want to see getting developed, and by winning games we can promote that process.

“Now we’re able to play more games in Beijing in front of our fans, and these are meaningful games, playoff games. It’s what it’s all about, it’s more fun and it’s great for our fans to be a part of that.”

Rau and Karhunen were both new to the KHL this season, and both admitted that the travel required of a team whose nearest opponent is 1,300 kilometres away in Vladivostok was a challenge. But for Rau, the whole experience has been a memorable one.

“I think playing in the KHL was even better than I expected,” Rau added. “The skill in this league has been a lot of fun to see and experience at first hand.

“There are always some unknowns when you join a new team, but I thought this was a really exciting opportunity to play hockey, live in China and see different parts of the world. And even those long flights aren’t as bad as you’d think!”

For Ponikarovsky, meanwhile, his extensive KHL experience has seen him go all the way to the Gagarin Cup with SKA St. Petersburg, giving him a slightly different perspective on life at a start-up organization.

“At SKA it was clear that we had one of the best teams in Russia,” the Ukrainian national team forward said. “Not only did we supply a large part of the Russian national team, we also had big players for other European countries. At Kunlun it’s clear that there isn’t a budget to build that kind of a roster, so we have a different type of player. These are players who are looking to prove themselves and show everyone what they can do.

“We also understand that our team was created to promote hockey in China. People here want to develop the sport and I think they can make it work. The finance is in place, and from what I can see, the desire is also there. When we get to the playoffs, we will have a good chance if we can play our best hockey.”

Admittedly, things won’t be easy when Kunlun takes to the ice against Metallurg on Wednesday. Three losses in the final three games of the season have dented the team’s momentum, while a serious injury to French forward Damien Fleury will rule him out of the playoffs and potentially cost him the chance to play on home ice in Paris at the upcoming 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France.

But Yurzinov reckons his team is showing the kind of character that can test Magnitka. “After the first period we knew we’d made the playoffs,” he said following the 2-1 defeat at Dynamo Moscow on Saturday. “Given where we started from, we can say that’s a decent achievement, but we’re still learning and the game with Dynamo was another lesson for us. Now we’re getting ready for another tough opponent, but I think we have everything in place to put up a real fight against Magnitogorsk.”

ANDY POTTS