Landmark goal for veteran, great start for rookie goalie
Last week saw big moments for established KHL stars and a teenage goalie. There was a new job for one of Russian hockey’s legends, and an interim head coach secured the top job on a full-time basis.
Moisevich maintains perfect start
Young SKA goalie Pavel Moisevich was back in action on Saturday, coming off the bench to replace Nikita Serebryakov eight minutes into the game at Vityaz. At the time, the home team was up 2-0; Moisevich kept his net intact until the end of OT, then backstopped a shoot-out win. That means the 19-year-old is unbeaten in 131:55 of KHL action – which represents his entire career to date. So far, though, he has yet to start a game and therefore has not yet recorded a shut-out in his brief career. Will that change this week, or will someone find a way to score on him at last?
Lada leads the way
At the start of the season, there was some talk of how solid Lada’s roster looked on the club’s return to the KHL. However, that talk tended to suggest that Oleg Bratash’s team would be a good bet to make the playoffs. Two months later, it looks like that was an under-estimate. Lada is currently top of the overall KHL standings, moving back to the summit on Sunday with a 4-3 win over defending champion CSKA. Sergei Shumakov scored twice on his former club, helping to build a 4-0 lead in Moscow. The home team hit back to make it a one-goal game, but ran out of time before it could force OT.
Lada tops the East as CSKA falls short. November 5 round-up
Kablukov scores in 1,000th game
Dynamo Moscow forward Ilya Kablukov is the KHL’s latest millennium man. He made his 1,000th appearance in a 6-1 victory over HC Sochi. Kablukov is only the 18th man to make 1,000 appearances in the top division of Russian or Soviet hockey. The 35-year-old, whose career highlights include three Gagarin Cups and Olympic gold in 2018, played almost all of those games in the KHL era: he has just 82 appearances in the Russian Superleague for CSKA. Fittingly, the hard-working center marked the occasion with a goal.
200 goals for Gusev
Another Dynamo forward, Nikita Gusev, also reached a milestone during the week. One day after 6-1 win over Sochi, the teams met again and Gusev potted his 200th career goal in a 5-2 victory. The 31-year-old, who has Olympic gold and silver as well as a Gagarin Cup, is the youngest of the 11 players to reach 200 goals in the KHL. He’s also close to breaking the all-time top 10, just behind Geoff Platt’s 202. As of Nov. 1, Gusev needs 36 more goals to crack the top five KHL goalscorers.
Best Players of the 2023-2024 ninth week
Mozyakin moves into coaching
KHL legend Sergei Mozyakin is back in the game. The league’s all-time scoring leader, previously working as Director of Sporting Development at Metallurg, has taken on a new role as part of Andrei Razin’s coaching staff. Not surprisingly, the most predatory forward in Russian domestic hockey history is taking responsibility for Magnitka’s offense and power play. And Mozyakin’s arrival coincided with an upturn in results. After a five-game skid, Metallurg rallied with back-to-back wins over Barys and Dinamo Minsk to briefly return to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Zavarukhin secures full-time post
Traktor’s Alexei Zavarukhin has overseen a turnover in form since replacing Anvar Gatiyatulin on Oct. 4. On Friday, his team won 6-1 at home to Admiral, its biggest victory of the season to date, and secured a fifth successive triumph. That was enough to persuade club president Alexei Teksler to confirm that Zavarukhin can drop the ‘interim’ from his job title and adopt the title of full time head coach. It also means that, for the first time, the KHL has two head coaches who are related: Alexei’s cousin Nikolai Zavarukhin is in charge at Avtomobilist.
Jaros joins Severstal
Slovak defenseman Christian Jaros is back in the KHL after signing a two-year contract with Severstal. The 27-year-old made his debut for his new club on Sunday in a 3-1 win at Kunlun Red Star. Last season Jaros signed for Avangard then moved to CSKA. In total he played 40 games for 12 (3+9) points. After acquiring Jaros, Severstal ended its agreement with Vasily Tokranov.
