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Season #16 starts
Competitive hockey is back, and the opening weekend of the KHL season was not short of action. After a thrilling Opening Cup game, we had a flurry of goals on Saturday. The weekend brought personal landmarks and notable debuts, as well as a couple more interesting trades.
Ak Bars wins Opening Cup
The traditional KHL curtain-raiser saw Ak Bars’ much-vaunted offense overpower defending champion CSKA in Moscow. Dmitrij Jaskin, the highest-profile of Kazan’s summer signings, marked his debut with a goal and an assist. That return was matched by Alexander Radulov and Vadim Shipachyov as Ak Bars won its third Opening Cup in five appearances in the big September showdown. Shipachyov also reached 600 assists in the KHL, the first to reach that landmark in the league.
Ak Bars wins the Opening Cup. September 1 round-up
Fedotov starts for CSKA
The Opening Cup also saw Ivan Fedotov return to action after a year out of the game. The goalie, who helped Russia win Olympic silver in Beijing, is currently at the center of a contract wrangle with the Philadelphia Flyers and faces a four-month ban on playing, issued by the IIHF. CSKA is appealing that ban, and KHL president Alexei Morozov supported the club’s decision to play its goalie.
“Neither the KHL nor the club agree with the IIHF’s decision, which infringes the constitutional rights of a Russian citizen to work,” Morozov said. “Russia’s prosecutor general spoke in defense of the player, and sent a message to the Russian Hockey Federation, the club and the league about the consequences of violating his right to work and insisting that Fedotov be allowed to take part in the championship.”
After CSKA’s 2-5 loss in the opening game, Fedotov spent game two on the bench as Alexander Sharychenkov backstopped a 4-1 win over Admiral.
Kvartalnov opens with comeback win
The first weekend of the season sees several new head coaches take charge of their teams for the first time. In Minsk, Dmitry Kvartalnov’s return to the KHL after a one-year break brings big expectations – and his first competitive game delivered in spades. Dinamo was 1-4 down at Neftekhimik, but rallied to win 5-4 in OT. Yanni Kaldis, one of Dinamo’s summer signings, was the key man, grabbing two goals to tie the game, then win it. Earlier, Sam Anas marked his debut with a goal. For Kvartalnov, it was the fourth time one of his teams successfully rallied from three down to win. Other head coaches who made winning starts included Andrei Kozyrev, whose Severstal team beat Sochi 6-3, and Viktors Ignatjevs, who masterminded Kunlun’s 4-3 win at Spartak.
SKA edges first win, Kvartalnov leads Minsk to fightback success. September 2
Lada returns to KHL
After five years away, Lada Togliatti came back to the KHL. The Motormen began with a home game against Traktor and a full house came to the Lada Arena to see how Oleg Bratash’s team would fare on its return to the big league. The early signs were promising, with Nikita Popugayev giving the newcomer a fourth-minute lead. But Traktor is poised for a strong season this year, and Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men turned the game around with third-period goals from Sergei Kalinin and Anton Burdasov to take a 2-1 verdict.
Spartak captain heads East
The surprise move of the summer saw Alexander Khokhlachyov leave Spartak to join Amur. Although Khokhlachyov was Spartak’s captain, and expecting to play a big role for Alexei Zhamnov’s team this season, he accepted a move to the Tigers just two days after potting the winning goal at the Mayor of Moscow Cup. The trade might have been a shock, but it did not greatly disturb the player: he marked his debut with a goal as Amur won 4-2 at Vityaz.
Bowey heads to Minsk
Canadian defenseman Madison Bowey is the latest import to join Kvartalnov at Dinamo. The 28-year-old won a host of titles as a junior, including the WHL championship and the World U18s. He also took part in an epic Canadian Junior championship final alongside Traktor’s new goalie Zach Fucale and the rising star of the era, Connor McDavid. In his senior career, Bowey has not hit the same heights. However, he was part of the Capitals’ Stanley Cup winning squad in 2018 (albeit, without featuring in the playoffs) and in 2020 he was second in scoring among Detroit’s defensemen.
Olympic champion goes to Sibir
Nikolai Prokhorkin, a player whose career includes Gagarin Cup and Olympic glory, but also frequent injury problems, is on the move again. He left SKA this summer, briefly signed with Sochi, and is now at Sibir. The journey via the Russian south was a technical issue, enabling SKA to comply with trade regulations. Now he’s part of David Nemirovsky’s new-look Sibir team and hoping for an injury-free campaign to cement his status as one of Russia’s top centers.
JHL Opening Cup
After the KHL’s Opening Cup, it was the Juniors’ turn on Sunday. And, in much the same fashion, last season’s runner-up overcame the defending champion in the grand curtain raiser. Omskiye Yastreby took a 3-0 verdict over Chaika Nizhny Novgorod, avenging last year’s Kharlamov Cup defeat. Although both teams have, inevitably, changed significantly over the summer as players step up to the senior age group, the opening goal went to Danila Sysoyev, who was part of Omskiye’s run to the final last term. That came midway through the second period. Chaika thought it had tied the game in the third, but the ref whistled it down after the net was dislodged. Then Alexander Filatiev and last season’s top scorer Vyacheslav Malov extended Omsk’s lead to the final, 3-0 margin. Stanislav Berezhnoi, last season’s first-choice goalie, began the 15th JHL season with a shut-out.
