500 points for da Costa, another loss for Dynamo

Stephane da Costa is the 10th player to reach 500 points in the KHL. Avtomobilist’s French center had three assists in his team’s 4-2 win over Salavat Yulaev to reach his milestone. Elsewhere, there were goals aplenty. Barys scored five on Dynamo as the Muscovites’ slow start continued. Amur edged a nine-goal verdict against Shanghai, and Avangard defeated Dinamo Minsk by the same scoreline after a shoot-out. Admiral’s 2-0 win over Sibir brought quick revenge for the Sailors.

Exciting win for Amur in home opener

Amur Khabarovsk 5 Shanghai Dragons 4 (3-1, 0-0, 2-3)

The Tigers faced the Dragons in a home opener for Amur and a first road trip for Shanghai. And the two teams produced an enthralling encounter in Khabarovsk before the host claimed a 5-4 verdict.



There was chances from the first seconds, and it wasn’t long before the home fans were celebrating the opener. A five-on-three power play saw Alex Broadhurst score in the seventh minute, with Alex Galchenyuk’s assist giving him his first point of the season. He soon doubled that, when his face-off win set up Ivan Mishchenko to make it 2-0. At the other end, a Shanghai power play saw Borna Rendulic reduce the deficit, but a defensive error enabled Sergei Dubakin to restore the two-goal lead before the intermission.

Between them, the teams had 35 shots on goal in the first period. But the middle frame saw that figure almost halved and neither team could add to the scoreline. Andrei Kareyev and Maxim Dorozhko stayed on top of what chances there were and Amur carried its 3-1 lead into the third period.

However, that final frame began with the Dragons clawing their way back into the game. Nick Merkley scored two goals in three minutes - with Rendulic adding an assist to his first-period marker – and Shanghai made it 3-3.

That double was quick, but Amur found an even quicker pair of goals midway through the session when Oleg Li and Kirill Slepets scored on Kareyev with just 20 seconds between them. There was still time for Max Ellis to claim his fourth goal of the season and make it a one-goal game with three minutes left. But that was as close as Shanghai could get in a frantic finale; Amur held on to win its first home game.

Sailors take revenge

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

 This was swift revenge for Admiral after the Sailors suffered defeat in Novosibirsk three days ago. That game saw Vadim Yepanchintsev claim his 100th victory as a head coach in the KHL; today his opposite number Leonids Tambijevs matched that landmark.



Yepanchintsev kept his winning team largely unchanged, apart from goalie Louis Domingue replacing Anton Krasotkin. Admiral brought back Yegor Petukhov and Mario Grman for its home opener.

The early exchanges were hard fought, but offered few scoring chances. The first of those went to the visitor, but Adam Huska had the answer to a testing backhand shot from Ivan Klimovich. Later, penalties on Vladimir Tkachyov and Yegor Alanov left Sibir with three skaters for a time, but there was still danger for Huska when Tkachyov jumped out of the box and onto a dangerous counterattack. Nonetheless, the on-going power play eventually paid off: Kyle Olsen came off the left wing for a wrist shot from the center of the zone and recorded his first KHL goal.

Sibir had chances to tie the game at the start of the middle frame. First, Timur Akhiyarov hit the post, then Klimovich saw his solo rush snuffed out. However, that bright start was nullified by more penalties and the second period saw Admiral outshoot its guest 12-4.

Hopes of saving the game in the third period also came to naught. In the 52nd minute, Admiral doubled its lead. Alexander Daryin surged into the Sibir zone, drew four opponent towards him, then picked out a pass to the wide open Ivan Muranov. His wrister went in off the post, and knocked the final nail in Sibir’s coffin. Huska finished with his first shut-out for Admiral, and his first in the KHL since Nov. 10, 2023.

Prokhorkin pots shoot-out winner

Avangard Omsk 5 Dinamo Minsk 4 SO (1-1, 2-0, 1-3, 0-0, 1-0)

After an 11-goal thriller against Dynamo Moscow, Avangard served up another exciting game against Dinamo Minsk. This time the Hawks blew a two-goal lead, tied 4-4 in regulation and won it in a shoot-out.



The visitor came to town after a win at Barys, and head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov was able to call on some big reinforcements for Monday’s action. Vadim Shipachyov, Andrei Stas and Stanislav Galiyev all returned to action. Avangard was without Semyon Chistyakov and Vasily Ponomaryov, with Daniil Chaika and Pavel Leuka stepping up.

The host made a strong start and opened the scoring after two minutes. Konstantin Okulov drew the Minsk defense behind Zach Fucale’s net and played the puck out front for Damir Sharipzyanov to find the net. Dinamo responded with the first power play of the game but could not force a tying goal.

Instead, there were relatively few chances until five minutes before the intermission when Igor Martynov took a major penalty and Giovanni Fiore followed him to the box after a trip. The five-on-three power play eventually saw Sam Anas tie the scores just as Fiore was about to leave the box. Martynov’s penalty continued, but Dinamo could not take further advantage.

Dinamo began the second session looking lively, but again allowed a quick goal. On a counterattack, Alexander Volkov fired into Fucale’s pads and Andrew Poturalski was first to the rebound.

That sparked the visitor into even greater efforts. Dinamo dominated the play, with Avangard reduce to rare counters. Nikita Serebryakov was busy, but the home defense did a good job of protecting the goalie and he was rarely exposed to serious danger. Then, midway through the frame, a home power play almost led to a short-handed goal for Minsk: incredibly, Daniil Lipsky twice failed to find an almost open net from close range. That miss proved costly. Another Hawks PP saw Nail Yakupov make it 3-1, despite the Bison’s dominance through the period.

Belarusian pressure finally told in the third period with two quick goals to tie the game. First, Alex Limoges successfully redirected a Rob Hamilton shot past Serebryakov. Then, 15 seconds later, Yegor Borikov put away a rebound after the puck boomed off the back boards.

That might have been a psychological blow to sink many teams, but Avangard showed its mental fortitude and regained the lead thanks to its own Belarusian forward Martynov. It took a second goal from Limoges to tie that game and force overtime.

The extras passed without a single whistle, never mind a goal. In the shoot-out, Nikolai Prokhorkin potted the winner, adding to his hat-trick in Saturday’s game to lead Avangard to a third straight win.

500 points for da Costa

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 (2-1, 1-0, 1-1)

The second meeting between these two in three days brought another win for Avtomobilist. In Ufa, the Motormen took a 4-1 verdict; on home ice they hit four again, but Salavat Yulaev improved enough to score twice.



Compared with Friday’s team, Avto continued with the same defensive pairings but returned to more familiar offensive lines: Semyon Kizimov, Alexander Sharov and Brooks Macek were reunited, for example. Viktor Kozlov reshuffled all of his lines after the home loss, and scratched Ilya Fedotov and Prokhor Korbit.

While the home team relied on greater skill, the visitor sought to neutralize that via a strong forecheck. In the early exchanges, that put some pressure on Avtomobilist, but either Vladimir Galkin made the saves or the final pass went astray. Before long, the host moved play away from its net and the first power play of the game saw a familiar combination: Stephane da Costa with the pass, Macek on target from the left-hand circle.

Another home power play brought another goal, just 15 seconds after Nikita Shcherbakov’s high stick. Sharov claimed this one, steering a Reid Boucher feed into the net. At the other end, Salavat’s first power play brought an even quicker goal, with Danil Alalykin required just 13 seconds to punish Dmitry Yudin’s misdemeanor.  

Yudin was back in the box early in the middle frame but, for the first time in the game, the penalty kill held up. And, on 27 minutes, Avtomobilist took its first chance of the session when da Costa again set up Macek to make it 3-1. That was the first equal-strength marker of the night. For da Costa it was a third assist on the night and a 500th career point in the KHL. The Frenchman is only the 10th player to reach that landmark.

Avtomobilist kept looking for more, but the next major incident came late in the frame when defenseman Nikita Tryamkin got into his second fight of the season – a real heavyweight bout against Alexander Komarov.

That got the players revved up for the third, and it was rare to see equal strength teams on the ice. With 13 minutes to play, Kozlov went for broke and called Alexander Samonov to the bench in the hope of forcing a goal in a six-on-four power play. However, just 15 seconds later Danil Romantsev found the empty net from his own blue line and Ufa had a mountain to climb.

The visitor eventually managed to reach base camp when Alalykin’s second power play goal of the night made it 2-4. However, with less than three minutes on the clock, it always felt like a consolation effort and Avtomobilist ensured that it took a third successive win.

Discipline lets down Dynamo

Barys Astana 5 Dynamo Moscow 2 (0-1, 2-0, 3-1)

It’s three wins in four for Barys as last season’s basement dweller continues to impress at the start of the new campaign. But for Dynamo, these are worrying times. Alexei Kudashov’s team was expected to be among the leaders in the Western Conference, but currently languishes 10th out of 11 teams with just one victory so far.



The Blue-and-Whites could hardly have made a better start on Monday. With just 40 seconds played, Fredrik Claesson’s point shot was redirected into the net by Max Comtois. The visitor continued to have the better of the game, outshooting Barys 18-7 in the first period, but could not add to its lead.

The Kazakhs regrouped and turned the game around in the middle stanza. A first home power play of the night saw Ansar Shaykhmeddenov tie the game. And the Barys PP struck again late in the frame after a five-on-three power play. It took just 24 seconds for Vyacheslav Kolesnikov’s goal to put the host in front.

Although Dynamo had less than half the attacking play of Barys in that second period, the visitor still managed to get back into the game. Nikita Gusev tied the scores on 47 minutes and the points were there for the taking. But discipline led the visitor down again: another five-on-three power play brought a third Barys goal, with Michael Vecchione on target for the second game running. Vecchione finished the night with two goals after an empty-netter, in between he assisted on Alikhan Omirbekov’s first of the season.