900 for Shipachyov in record-breaking week

Club records tumbled in the KHL last week, while star forward Vadim Shipachyov broke through the 900-point barrier. Elsewhere, a young Sibir fan had a day to treasure and the celebrity coaches for next month’s All-Star action were announced.

Shipachyov closes on Mozyakin’s record

Vadim Shipachyov became on the second player in KHL history to produce 900 points. The Ak Bars forward reached that landmark in Thursday’s win over Dynamo, where he had a goal and an assist to move to 901 (285+616) from 948 games. Now he is closing on Sergei Mozyakin’s record of 928 KHL points (Mozyakin also played several seasons in the Russian Superleague prior the formation of the KHL, helping him to an all-time Russian record of 1,212 career points). While Dynamo was on the receiving end of Shipachyov’s 900^th career point, the 36-year-old scored 300 for the Blue-and-whites during four seasons in Moscow. He also represented hometown team Severstal (202 points) and SKA, where he won a Gagarin Cup and scored 315 points.

Milestones and records on a day of drama. November 16 round-up

Goldobin outstrips Spartak scorers

Nikolai Goldobin just keeps on scoring. Spartak’s star forward potted a double in Saturday’s win over Lada, moving to 24 goals for the season. That gives him the club record for goals in regular season play, outstripping Stefan Ruzicka, Ryan Stoa and Sergei Shirokov, each of whom managed 22. However, his predecessors needed a full season to reach their tally, while Goldobin has done it in just 33 games. That has him on course for 49 goals this season, which would eclipse Sergei Mozyakin’s record of 48 for Metallurg in the 2016-2017 campaign. Goldobin is also well-placed to set a Spartak record for points in one season. He is currently on 49 (24+25), with Branko Radivojevic and Alexander Khokhlachyov leading the way on 55 each.

Red-and-White captain sets appearance record

Goldobin isn’t alone in setting records for Spartak. Captain Dmitry Vishnevsky had a big day against Dynamo. He made his 359^th appearance for the Red-and-Whites, setting a club record in the KHL era. He also enjoyed a three-point game, potting his 50^th goal in the KHL and collecting his 100^th point for Spartak to help his team move clear at the top of the standings.

Shabanov extends record streak

In Chelyabinsk, Maxim Shabanov was also setting a club record. The Traktor forward extended his productive streak to 12 games, moving clear of the likes of Petri Kontiola and Lukas Sedlak, both of whom peaked at nine. Shabanov started getting hot back on Oct. 19 with an assist in a 2-1 win over Metallurg. Now his run is worth 17 (8+9) points, including a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Admiral and a three-point game against Kunlun. And the series is still alive thanks to an assist in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Avtomobilist.

1,000 goals for Red Star

The Dragons reached a club milestone in Thursday’s high-scoring loss at Lokomotiv. When Tyler Wong put his team up 2-0, he collected the team’s 1,000^th goal in KHL play. By the end of the evening, that was up to 1,002 – but it wasn’t enough to take the points. Lokomotiv trailed for most of the game, but recovered in the third. The home team got ahead for the first time in the 56^th minute and held on for a 5-4 win. In the same game, long-serving club captain Brandon Yip played his 300^th game for Red Star.

Zakharenko’s dream day

Most kids dream of suiting up with their favorite team – and for eight-year-old Sibir fan Igor Zakharenko that dream came true. The youngster, who is currently undergoing treatment for retinal cell cancer, joined his heroes on a special one-day contract and took part in the 4-1 win over Torpedo last week. Igor travelled to the arena with the team, joined in the on-ice warm-up, helped head coach David Nemirovsky deliver his pre-game speech and joined the coaching staff on the bench for the anthems before performing the ceremonial puck drop. Later, Igor was back in the locker room to receive the player of the game award from his team-mates, who cited his courageous battle against illness as an inspiration.

Hockey meets football

The All-Star Game is fast approaching, and this week we learned which celebs will join the league’s top coaches behind the bench in Petersburg on Dec. 9-10. This year, the organizers have chosen four stars of Russian football, recognizing the huge popularity of both sports in the Northern Capital and recalling how the biggest attendance for a club hockey game in Europe was at Zenit’s stadium in 2018, when 67,700 fans saw SKA face CSKA. Two-time Soviet champion Alexander Mostovoi will link up with Spartak head coach Alexei Zhamnov for Team Bobrov. He will be joined by three members of Russia’s Euro 2008 semi-finalists, Roman Shirokov (Team Tarasov), Andrei Arshavin (Team Kharlamov) and Dmitry Sychev (Team Chernyshev).

TV stars to feature at Women’s All-Star Game

At the Women’s All-Star Game in Tula a week earlier, TV presenters Natalya Klark and Alexandra Lyskova will assist Oleg Namestnikov (Torpedo, Team West) and Valery Davletshin (Agidel Ufa, Team East). Klark has done this before, working alongside Jukka Jalonen and Ilya Vorobyov at the KHL All-Star Games in 2018 and 2019, while Lyskova makes her first foray into hockey coaching.