Goal rush ahead of KHL pause

The final week of KHL action before the international break brought scoring aplenty. We had two 12-goal games on Sunday and some memorable, high-scoring comebacks during week 14.

By the dozen

It was a high-scoring week in the KHL. Sunday saw two games produce 12 goals apiece. Avangard jumped to a 5-2 lead at home to Spartak but was left hanging on to win it 7-5, then Nikita Gusev had 6 points as Dynamo Moscow won 8-4 at Traktor.

Big comebacks

There was high-scoring action on Wednesday as well. Spartak rallied from 0-4 to beat Sibir 7-6 in overtime. Then Metallurg went to Avtomobilist and came back from 0-3 to tie it up at 4-4 then 5-5. Robin Press grabbed a last-minute winner for the visitor.

Men of Steel

As the KHL goes into the international break, there’s a steely look to the top of the table in both conferences. Metallurg leads the way in the East, and in the overall standings, with 53 points. Meanwhile, the Western Conference is led by another team forged in a steelworking town – Severstal is one point clear of Lokomotiv here, although Dinamo Minsk is two points off the top with four games in hand.

Prolific Metallurg

Metallurg is also the most prolific team in the KHL season, with 131 goals in 34 games and a strike rate of 3.85 goals/game. Not surprisingly, two of its players are at the front in the scoring race. Vladimir Tkachyov leads the way on 43 (9+34) points. Roman Kantserov is the leading beneficiary of Tkachyov’s assists, with a league-leading 22 goals in his39 points. Traktor’s Josh Leivo is also on 39 points, rounding out the top three.

Motorygin’s shut-out streak

Dynamo Moscow goalie Maxim Motorygin completed the fourth longest shut-out streak in KHL history. He kept his goal intact for 252:04 before Lada’s Andrei Altybarmakyan scored on him. That’s a club record for Dynamo in the KHL, and forms part of a winning run that lifts the Blue-and-Whites into the top four in the Western Conference. The all-time KHL record remains Timur Bilyalov’s 316:09 for Ak Bars.

Tambijevs leaves Admiral

They’re looking for a new pair of hands on the wheel in Vladivostok after the departure of head coach Leonids Tambijevs. His colleague Andrei Banada was also dismissed with the team languishing outside the playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Latvian-born Tambijevs took charge of Admiral in November 2021. He took them to the playoffs twice and, in 2023, navigated through the first round for the only time in the club’s history. In total, he won 109 of his 269 games in charge, but was removed after a four-game skid that culminated in Saturday’s loss to Lokomotiv. Ilnur Gizatullin was named interim head coach.

All-Star rosters taking shape

The fan votes have been counted, the media nominations are in. That means we already have a good idea of how the 2026 Fonbet KHL All Star rosters will look. Next year’s extravaganza in Yekaterinburg has a new format. Instead of teams representing the four KHL divisions, this season’s show will see KHL Ural Stars, KHL RUS Stars, KHL World Stars and KHL U23 Stars competing.

The fan poll selected Avtomobilist goalie Vladimir Galkin, Salavat Yulaev d-man Alexei Vasilevsky and forwards Josh Leivo (Traktor) and Vladimir Tkachyov (Metallurg) for team Ural. They’ll be joined by media picks Grigory Dronov (Traktor), Alexander Zharovsky (Salavat Yulaev) and Roman Kantserov (Metallurg).

Team RUS features Filipp Dolganov (Neftekhimik), Damir Sharipzyanov (Avangard), Alexander Radulov (Lokomotiv) and Danil Aimurzin (Severstal) from the fan poll. The media nominations are Daniil Pylenkov (Dynamo Moscow), Konstantin Okulov (Avangard) and Andrei Belozyorov (Neftekhimik).
The World Stars include Zach Fucale (Dinamo Minsk), Mitch Miller (Ak Bars), Sam Anas (Dinamo Minsk) and Max Comtois (Dynamo Moscow). Yanni Kaldis (Severstal), Daniel Sprong (CSKA) and Kevin Labanc (Shanghai Dragons) were the media choices. In addition, Minsk forward Vitaly Pinchuk will join the team as the Fonbet Overtime pick.

Among the U23s we have Dmitry Gamzin (CSKA), Anton Silayev (Torpedo), Matvei Korotky (SKA) and Yegor Surin (Lokomotiv). The media selections were Daniil Orlov (Spartak), Mikhail Ilyin (Severstal) and Yegor Vinogradov (Torpedo).
The All-Star Weekend in Yekaterinburg is on Feb. 6 and 7, 2026.

International break

There’s no scheduled KHL action this week as the program pauses for the traditional Channel 1 Cup international tournament. This year’s event is taking place in Novosibirsk from Dec. 11-14. National teams from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will take part, with a 3x3 tournament scheduled for the opening day on Thursday.