Traktor stumbles at Barys, winning starts for Amur, Severstal, Spartak
Last season’s runner-up suffered an unexpected reverse at Barys, the team that finished rock bottom of the 2025 standings. An overtime goal from Reilly Walsh gave the Kazakhs a 4-3 verdict in their opening game. There were also victories for Amur and Severstal, who blanked Sibir and Neftekhimik respectively. Spartak played out an incident-packed encounter with Sochi before taking a verdict.
Dorozhko blanks Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 0 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (0-0, 0-1, 0-1)
Alexander Galchenyuk Sr got off to a winning start in his first game as a KHL head coach thanks to a shut-out from Maxim Dorozhko. It was the goalie’s first appearance for Amur since his summer move from Vityaz.
The Tigers’ triumph was all the more notable given the absence of some key players. Forwards Alex Broadhurst and Evgeny Svechnikov missed out, as did defenseman Alexei Solovyov. That meant that Sergei Dubakin was drafted onto the visiting offense for a trip to his hometown club.
Sibir had personnel problems of its own in the first period. Goalie Louis Domingue, a summer signing, had to leave the ice for five minutes with Anton Krasotkin temporarily called into action. Domingue was able to return before the intermission and all three netminders kept their goal intact through 20 minutes.
After the break, Sibir stepped up its offense and outshot Amur. That brought power play chances, but no goals. Instead, Dubakin celebrated his homecoming with the opening goal in the 28th minute, scoring on the power play.
Sibir’s hopes of getting back into the game took a blow at the start of the third period when David Farrance was assessed a double minor after his stick caught Kirill Slepets in the face. Sibir killed the penalty but could not supress Amur’s momentum and the visitor made the game safe in the 56th minute thanks to Oleg Li’s goal.
Kazakhs start with win over Traktor
Barys Astana 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 OT (1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0)
Last season, these two teams could hardly have been further apart. While Traktor topped the Eastern Conference and went on to the cup final, Barys suffered a miserable campaign and finished rock bottom of the KHL standings.
But a new season brings new hope, and Barys gave its supporters grounds for optimism with an OT victory over last year’s runner-up. It was the second time in three days that Traktor was tied at 60 minutes, but Benoit Groulx’s team has yet to claim victory.
Mikhail Kravets, in his first KHL game as Barys head coach, was able to send out an entirely new starting five after a busy summer in the trade market. It might have been six, but new goalie Olivier Rodrigue wasn’t healthy for the start of the season and Andrei Shutov got the nod.
He was beaten after five minutes when Josh Leivo potted his first goal for Traktor. After racking up 49 for Salavat Yulaev last season, the Canadian is expected to shoulder the burden of replacing Maxim Shabanov on Traktor’s strikeforce. However, that was the visitor’s first shot on target in the game and Barys quickly tied things up through Ansar Shaykhmeddenov. The Kazakhs looked better as the first period progressed, but despite several power play chances there was no further scoring before the intermission.
The fast-paced action continued in the second period. Midway through the session, buoyed by a four-minute power play, Barys got in front when Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan produced a great pass to set up Kirill Savitsky. In response, Leivo set up Mikhail Goryunov-Rolgizer to make it 2-2 at the second break.
It was a similar story in the third period. Barys scored on the power play – Tyce Thompson this time, converting a five-on-three advantage in the 53rd minute. That was a debut marker for Thompson. But there was a late twist. The home team lost defenseman Ian McCoshen after he took a puck to the face. Traktor called a time-out, called goalie Sergei Mylnikov to the bench and tied the scores with two-and-a-half minutes to play thanks to Pierrick Dube’s second goal in as many KHL games.
That meant a second successive overtime for Traktor, but this time the visitor began on the PK after it was flagged for too many men in the closing stages. Barys took full advantage, settling matters after 15 seconds of the extras thanks to a game-winner from Reilly Walsh.
Korostelyov goal separates Spartak and Sochi
Spartak Moscow 4 HC Sochi 3 (0-0, 3-3, 1-0)
After a breathless middle frame, Spartak secured a 4-3 win over Sochi to make a winning start to the season. Alexei Zhamnov’s team twice trailed in the second period but got ahead in the 41st minute and held that lead until the end.
The game got off to a relatively slow start before Spartak began to ramp up the pressure in the first period. The home team outshot Sochi 14-5 at the first intermission, but could not find a breakthrough.
After that goalless opening stanza, it all kicked off in the middle frame as the teams traded six goals. Sochi got on the power play right away, and after Daniil Seroukh hit the post, Sergei Popov gave the visitor a 23rd-minute lead. And the goals kept coming. Spartak tied it up thanks to Alexader Belyayev on 23:06, but Sochi was back in front on a debut goal from Noel Hoefenmayer on 24:00.
There was a brief lull in the scoring, but Spartak jumped into the lead for the first time with two goals in 44 seconds midway through the session. Sochi lost two players to the sin bin, and Adam Ruzicka converted the five-on-three power play after Ivan Morozov won possession behind the net and set off a combination that saw Pavel Poryadin feed his Slovak colleague to make it 2-2. The power play continued, now five-on-four, and German Rubtsov steered home a fine pass from Morozov to give the Red-and-Whites a 3-2 advantage.
The drama kept coming. Sochi was on the power play when Nathan Todd got a short-handed rush and Seroukh hauled him down. The Canadian stepped up to take the penalty shot but couldn’t beat Pavel Khomchenko. Then, just after Joey Keane left the box, Artur Tyanulin tied the scores when he beat Artyom Zagidulin at the second attempt.
The goal rush continued at the start of the third, with Spartak regaining the lead right away. Nikita Korostelyov fired the puck to the slot and was celebrating after it bounced off Hoefenmayer’s stick and beat Khomchenko to make it 4-3.
At the other end, Rafael Bikmullin ran over Zagidulin, prompting a four-man scuffle. It ended with a double minor for Bikmullin, plus two-minute tallies for three other players. Spartak got on the power play, but could not extend its lead.
That proved to be the last significant incident of the game. Both teams had power play chances in the closing stages but neither could make it count and Spartak held on for a 4-3 win.
New signings fire Severstal to victory
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 0 Severstal Cherepovets 5 (0-1, 0-2, 0-2)
Goals from summer signings Nikita Kamalov and Thomas Gregoire, plus a shut-out from Alexander Samoilov, helped Severstal to victory in its opening game.
Neftekhimik, in its first season under head coach Igor Grishin, struggled to make inroads against a Lynx outfit expected to continue its run of playoff seasons under Andrei Kozyrev.
Severstal got in front in the eighth minute thanks to Kamalov’s first goal for his new club. The defenseman found the net as the visitor dominated the opening exchanges. It wasn’t until late in the first period that Neftekhimik began to pose some questions, and the home team was unable to get on the scoreboard.
The second period began badly for the Wolves. First, Ruslan Abrosimov doubled Severstal’s lead. Then, Artyom Kudashov, on loan from Dynamo Moscow, took a double minor to hand the momentum to the opposition. That set the tone for another stanza dominated by the Lynx and Gregoire, a summer signing from Kloten, Switzerland, extended the advantage in the 36th minute.
On a good day for defensemen, Yanni Kaldis assisted on two third-period goals for the visitor. First, he set up Kirill Pilipenko for last season’s leading scorer to open his 2025/2026 account. Then he combined with Gregoire as on-loan Kirill Tankov completed an emphatic road win.
