Record-breaking Dragons and a day of legends

Last week in the KHL brought a club record winning streak, two notable centuries, a day of shut-outs and a galaxy of stars paying tribute to an old friend. Read on for the latest highlights around the league.

Dragons take wing

Kunlun Red Star is on a club record winning streak. Friday’s 3-0 victory over CSKA made it six in a row for the Dragons, beating the team’s previous best. Then, on Sunday, Mikhail Kravets’ team added a seventh success, this time in a shoot-out at Lada. The sequence has lifted Red Star to within two points of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, raising hopes that the team could make post season for the first time since its debut campaign in 2016/17.

Ufa remembers Gimayev

To mark what would have been the 70th birthday of Sergei Gimayev, a rugged defenseman turned celebrated hockey broadcaster, the stars of yesteryear came out for a special day in Ufa. The inaugural Gimayev Cup saw a battle between Team Datsyuk and Team Morozov at the centerpiece of a day of hockey festivities. As well as the team captains, the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Maxim Afinogenov, Igor Grigorenko and Sergei Mozyakin took part in an entertaining exhibition game. Team Morozov eventually won it 8-7, with Sergei Gimayev Jr. scoring the winning goal.

Shut-out day

On Tuesday, KHL goalies said ‘no’. Of seven games, five of them produced shut-outs. Daniil Isayev (Lokomotiv) and Zach Fucale (Traktor) both made 18 saves, Vasily Demchenko (Dinamo Minsk) made 21, Kunlun’s Jeremy Smith stopped 25 shots and Dynamo Moscow’s Vladislav Podyapolsky had 26 saves. For Fucale, this was the second shut-out in a row, while Demchenko played his second game in two days. 

Avto’s comeback act

While many teams struggled to score on Tuesday, Avtomobilist and Barys traded goals at will. The Kazakhs got up by two, Avtomobilist reeled in the lead and eventually took a shoot-out verdict after a 2-2 tie. But that was only the start for this week’s comeback kings. In the next game, at home to Admiral, the Motormen fell behind three times, but won 4-3 thanks to Stepan Khripunov’s last-minute goal. 

McLeod on the spot

One of last week’s most entertaining games saw Avangard rally from 0-3 to win 6-5 at Severstal. A big part of the Hawks’ success that day was Mike McCleod contribution on the draw. He won 20 out of 23 face-offs (87%), including the one that led to Damir Sharipzyanov’s winning goal. McCleod has been consistently strong in this role all season, leading the league with 64.1% of face-offs won.

Aimurzin’s century

Danil Aimurzin became the latest player to reach 100 points in the KHL. The young Severstal forward reached the landmark in his 135th game, opening the scoring in Monday’s 4-2 victory over Spartak. Aimurzin, who has blossomed into a contender for the national team, began his career in 2020/2021 with Salavat Yulaev but has found greater success in Cherepovets.

 

And a century for Larionov

Also during the week, the Professor secured his 100th victory as a KHL head coach. Igor Larionov has been a revelation behind the bench at Torpedo, promoting exciting and attacking hockey at all times. A win over Sibir brought up the century in his 190th game. 

Mironov makes debut behind the bench

Experienced defenseman Andrei Mironov is nowhere near Larionov’s coaching achievement – or at least, not yet. The Spartak player, currently out with a long-term injury, was behind the bench as part of Alexei Zhamnov’s coaching staff for the game at SKA last week. Zhamnov explained that he wanted to keep Mironov close to his team-mates, and the experiment helped deliver a 5-0 win for the Muscovites. Maybe this is the start of a legendary new coaching career?