From playing with a childhood hero to catching up with old friends, the All-Star Game is full of stories behind the scenes. Here are some of our favorites from the weekend action in Chelyabinsk.
Childhood dreams
When Brandon Yip was growing up in British Columbia, Sergei Fedorov and the Red Wings’ Russian Five were an inspiration to an aspiring hockey player. So this year’s All-Star was extra special for him.
“This was another unbelievable experience,” the Kunlun Red Star captain said of his team on Team Tarasov with the CSKA head coach. “It was great fun, coming here, meeting other players from all over the league, working with Sergei Fedorov. He was my idol when I was a child, so playing on his team was a special pleasure and a real honor for me.”
Local heroes
Chelyabinsk, of course, is a true hockey town. It’s no coincidence that, apart from Moscow, this is the only city to host two All-Star events. And, in a season when Traktor is struggling to produce its best form in the KHL, the pressure was on the host club’s representatives to give their fans something to cheer at this event.
Goalie Ilya Proskuryakov didn’t let anybody down. In Sunday’s competition, he stopped six out of six penalty shots to win the goalies’ shoot-out competition. Needless to say, he was delighted with the whole event – not least because he began the summer looking at a place with Traktor’s farm club in the VHL.
“A few months ago, I couldn’t even have imagined that anyone would invite me to the All-Star Game,” he said. “The call was a pleasant surprise. But once I got the invite, I had to work hard to show the fans that we deserved to be out on the ice.”
Another Traktor favorite, Anton Burdasov, captained Team Kharlamov to victory in the Skill Show and a narrow loss to Team Bobrov in the tournament final.
“The fans enjoyed it and that’s the main thing,” he said. “For me, I had all my family in the arena!”
While Burdasov has no plans to make a claim for the Traktor captaincy after wearing the ‘C’ here, he admitted that the weekend was good for him after a frustrating time in the KHL. “I missed a month through injury so these few days have been good for me,” he added. “Ilya Petrovich [Vorobyov] had us motivated. We didn’t just want to go out and work, but to go and give the public some beautiful hockey.”
Kids step up for hat-tricks
This year’s All-Star weekend saw Andrei Altybarmakyan make a bit of history. He was one of the first junior players to earn himself a KHL All-Star call-up via his performance in the JHL Challenge Cup and this season he became the first of those prospects to return as a senior pro.
Fittingly, then, the juniors of 2022 also made a big impact. Two of them managed to score hat-tricks during the competition. Ivan Demidov, a rising star at SKA St. Petersburg, potted his treble for Team Team Tarasov before getting the winning goal in the shoot-out that decided the bronze medal game.
“I told my parents I’ve been to paradise,” Demidov said. “It’s just a festival of hockey, I really enjoyed it.”
Roman Kantserov, meanwhile, is a rising star in the Metallurg system. Here, he played for Team Kharlamov alongside fellow Steelmen Yegor Yakovlev and Nikolai Goldobin, with Magnitka’s head coach Ilya Vorobyov behind the bench. That trio offered very difference advice to the youngster.
“Yegor and Kolya [Goldobin] said: ‘relax, have fun’. But Ilya Petrovich told me: ‘the top players might take it easy here, but you need to give it at least 90%’. I thought I played OK, I decided to take it all in my own hands,” Kantserov smiled.
Everyone’s a winner
Team Bobrov skated off with the All-Star honors after defeating Team Kharlamov in the final. However, goalscorer Damir Zhafyarov insisted that there were no losers this weekend.
“Everyone’s a winner here,” he said. “Everyone who took part, everyone who came to watch, or followed it on TV. It’s a festival for everyone, everything was great. We had a tough game: we took our chances and they didn’t. But in the end, when they pulled their goalie, that was tough.
“In the KHL, we always have a busy schedule but the All-Star Game is a chance to relax. We can catch up with old friends and make new ones. I’d play in every All-Star Game if I could.”
