newly refreshed Avangard launched a rebranding campaign under the Omskie Yastreby (Омские Ястребы, Omsk Hawks) banner, changing the logo to the present design and the team colours to black and red. Omsk ended up fourth in the regular championship tying with Dynamo Moscow and became third in the league by attendance, but yet again could not progress past the semifinals after a 2–1 series defeat to Torpedo Yaroslavl. In 1999, Golubovich's team also reached third in the IIHF Continental Cup, the second-level pan-European ice hockey club tournament, tying in points with that year's champions HC Ambrì-Piotta of Switzerland. In the course of the 1999–2000 season, the club opted to switch coaches in favour of Gennady Tsygurov, who came to rebuild the team, turning to a young generation of local Omsk players, including future talents such as Alexander Svitov and Egor Shastin. Even though the replacement damaged the club's position in the season table and failed to help Avangard progress past the quarterfinals against rivals Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the team's line of Dmitry Zatonsky, Ravil Yakubov and Maxim Sushinsky still finished the year as the most productive line in the league. During Tsygurov's tenure, Yakubov was later replaced by Alexander Prokopiev to form one of the most potent lines in the club's history. In the 2001–02 season, Avangard's top trio was named the most productive line of the league. Its leader, Maxim Sushinsky, became a playoff MVP in both the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons, also being picked for the 2002 Superleague All-Star Team. In 2000–01, the Hawks were also joined by native Omsk defenceman Kirill Koltsov, that season's rookie of the year. In 2001, the team led by Sushinsky became the first Avangard team to reach the championship finals but lost to Magnitogorsk 4–2. The next season was less successful for Omsk as they were once again stopped in the semifinals by Magnitogorsk. During the early 2000s, Avangard became one of the first Russian hockey clubs to invite high-profile foreign players. Prior to the 2001–02 season, they signed 2000 World Championship MVP Martin Procházka and in 2002, he was joined by two more Czech national team players—Pavel Patera and Tomáš Vlasák. Former teammates with HC Kladno and AIK IF Patera and Procházka formed an all-Czech forward line for Omsk. The team's Czech reinforcement of 2002 was finalized when famed Olympic-winning coach Ivan Hlinka became Avangard's new head coach. Despite relative success of