A busy week in the KHL saw a milestone for a Russian hockey legend, a club record for a long-serving import and a winning road trips restore Avtomobilist to the Eastern Conference summit. Brooks Macek keeps on scoring, Sochi snapped its losing run, but Spartak became the fourth team to change its head coach this season.
Avtomobilist back on top
After an inconsistent run, Avtomobilist was overtaken at the top of the Eastern Conference by Metallurg and Salavat Yulaev. However, last week’s road trip was just the ticket for the Motormen. Three successive wins, at Severstal (3-2 SO), Kunlun Red Star (5-1) and Vityaz (4-1) put Avto back on top in the East. Brooks Macek scored twice in each of those games, cementing his position at the head of the KHL scoring race. The German international is on a six-game goal streak and currently has 33 (21+12) points from 29 games.
Unhappy travels for Western teams
While Avtomobilist enjoyed its travel, SKA did not. The league leader headed on its Far East tour with just two losses in 27 games. It came home with five defeats from 30, failing to get a single win at Amur, Admiral or Sibir. A similar fate fell another Western Conference high flyer, Dynamo. The Blue-and-Whites lost in Vladivostok for the first time ever, went down to Amur for the first time since 2010 and finished an unhappy tour with yet another loss in Novosibirsk.
SKA loses again, Avto returns to summit and Yip sets club record. November 12 round-up
Yip sets record
Kunlun Red Star captain Brandon Yip continues his great season. The 37-year-old extended his latest productive streak to nine games in Saturday’s win over Neftekhimik, beating his own club record for the Dragons. Yipper did it in some style, as well, potting a hat-trick as Red Star rallied from 0-2 and 2-4 to win 6-4.
Radulov reaches 600
Ak Bars is not having the most comfortable of seasons, despite its stellar roster. However, when the Kazan club marked its 1,000th game in the KHL, it also saw several other milestones. Alexander Radulov’s was perhaps the most notable: he became the fourth player to score 600 points in the KHL. Two of the three ahead of him are current team-mates Vadim Shipachyov and Danis Zaripov. The latter of those two picked up an assist in the same game, moving to 356 helpers for Ak Bars and setting a new club record ahead of Alexei Morozov. Zaripov’s pass set up a first-ever KHL goal for 20-year-old forward Maxim Bykov – a real handover from one generation to the next.
Spartak changes coach
After dropping out of the playoff places, Spartak decided to part company with head coach Boris Mironov. At the time of Mironov’s dismissal, the Red-and-Whites were on a six-game skid and had gone more than a month without winning a game in regulation. Drastic action brought an instant response, with Spartak winning at CSKA under the guidance of Alexei Zavarukhin. He’s the cousin of Avtomobilist head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin, but he only held the job in an interim capacity. On Saturday, Spartak announced that Igor Grishin would take over behind the bench. The 56-year-old has been working at Khimik Voskresensk this season. His team is the leading scorer in the VHL, winning 17 out of 22 games and scoring 83 goals.
Sochi snaps skid
After 12 consecutive defeats and a change of head coach, HC Sochi finally tasted victory. Andrei Altybarmakyan was the Leopards’ hero against, scoring two goals and producing a fine assist for Nikita Popugayev. The overtime verdict against the Railwaymen brought Sergei Svetlov his first win as Sochi head coach. However, the team was unable to build on that success, losing 3-5 at Torpedo in its next game.
Russia’s women face junior men
For the first time in history, the Russian women’s national team played official games against male opponents. During a pause in the Women’s Hockey League season, the ladies faced Russia’s U16 team, plus U18s from Belarus and Kazakhstan. It proved to be something of a learning curve, with the girls losing 1-8, 1-4 and 1-7. Along the way, Landysh Falyakhova made history with the Russian women’s first goal against male opposition, scoring in the loss to Russia U16 in the opening game.
Despite the heavy losses, Russia’s head coach Alexander Zybin saw some positives for his team.
“We gained some good experience,” Zybin said. “If we had been playing these type of games before, that would have been good for our team.”
Torpedo defender Angelina Goncharenko, who captained the team, said that the games represented a step forward for the women’s game.
