Happy New Year for forwards. January 4 round-up
Day two of the 2026 KHL schedule produced a glut of goals. Five games on the card produced 36 goals, with 13 of them coming in a spectacular 7-6 win for Spartak at Torpedo. Traktor edged Dinamo Minsk by the odd goal in nine, and there were five-goal displays from Avangard at Sibir and Ak Bars at home to Avtomobilist. The only low-scoring battle came in Moscow, but Lokomotiv’s shoot-out win at CSKA was enough to return the Railwaymen to the Western Conference summit.
Omsk wins Siberian derby
Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Avangard Omsk 5 (1-1, 1-3, 0-1)
Avangard enjoyed the better of the Siberian derby, halting Sibir’s three-game winning streak to avenge its defeat here in December.
The home team welcomed back forward Ivan Chekhovich from injury. His appearance celebrated both his 27th birthday and his 300th KHL game, but he was unable to produce a scoring contribution on his return to action.
Anton Kosolapov, meanwhile, continues his productive run since joining Sibir. He got an assist on the opening goal of the game, scored by Mikhail Abramov after four minutes.
But that was as good as it got for Sibir. Avangard tied it up in the first period on a goal from Andrew Poturalski, whose long range effort benefitted from Ivan Igumnov’s screen in front of Anton Krasotikin.
The game was tied at the first intermission, but after the break the visitor forged ahead. Konstantin Okulov scored twice on his first club to open a 3-1 lead for the visitor. Then, midway through the game, Semyon Chistyakov celebrated the birth of his child yesterday with a power play tally to take the game away from the home team.
Kosolapov got one back on a Sibir PP, moving to nine goals for the season. But this was always Avangard's game and the Hawks finished the job in the third. Sibir could not find any sort of comeback and Damir Sharipzyanov added a fifth goal into the empty net.
Fucale suffers on Chelyabinsk return
Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 Dinamo Minsk 4 (2-1, 2-1, 1-2)
High-flying Dinamo Minsk missed the chance to go top of the Western Conference after falling to defeat in Chelyabinsk. An entertaining battle saw Traktor edge a nine-goal game, led by two from Alexander Kadeikin. He scored his first goal on Zach Fucale, who was making his first return to Chelyabinsk after joining Dinamo in the summer but was pulled early in the second period.
An improbably four-on-one rush saw Traktor get in front midway through the first period. Vasily Glotov produced a great feed for Andrei Svetlakov to score Traktor’s first goal of the new year. Dinamo tied it up in the 18th minute thanks to Alex Limoges, but could not make it to the intermission on level terms. With two seconds left on the clock, Vitaly Kravtsov forced a turnover and Mikhail Grigorenko took advantage to restore the lead.
That triggered a goal rush. On 20:39, Kadeikin scored his first; a minute later Glotov made it 4-1 to end Fucale’s evening. For a time, it seemed that Dinamo was done, but the visitor perked up as the middle frame progressed and Vitaly Pinchuk pulled a goal back to keep the contest alive.
It was more than alive in the 45th minute when a Minsk power play saw Pinchuk set up Sergei Kuznetsov to make it 3-4. At the other end, Vasily Demchenko proved a more formidable obstacle in the Belarusian net, but Kadeikin solved him at last with six to play, restoring that crucial two-goal cushion. Dinamo kept pressing, and Limoges got his second of the game to ensure a nerve-jangling finale, but Traktor held on to take the win.
Spartak edges 13-goal thriller
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 6 Spartak Moscow 7 (3-2, 2-2, 1-3)
The New Year festivities continued in Nizhny Novgorod, where it was party time for both sets of forwards. However, at the end of a 13-goal thriller, it was the visitor that was looking ahead excitedly to the coming year after edging an improbable 7-6 verdict.
The scoring started early – and kept going. Torpedo got off to a flyer: a five-on-three power play in the third minute brought an opening goal for Vasily Atanasov. Two minutes later, Anton Sizov doubled the lead and 2026 was happy enough for the home team.
But Dmitry Solovyov, one of the players penalized early in the game, quickly pulled one back for Spartak. And after the Red-and-Whites killed another penalty, the visitor converted its first power play of the night thanks to Daniil Orlov.
Having built and blown a two-goal lead, Torpedo went out and did it again. As the penalties kept coming, Yegor Vinogradov restored the home lead just before the intermission – 3-2 and 22 PIMs in a breathless first period. Then yet another power play saw Daniil Zhuravlyov make it 4-2 in the 26th minute.
So what happened next? More penalties, and more power play goals. Spartak scored two in 75 seconds, both on the PP, to get back to 4-4. Orlov claimed his second of the game, then Nikita Korostelyov made it 4-4 in the 32nd minute. However, Torpedo was showing some impressive finishing and the home team regained the lead once more thanks to Maxim Letunov in the 36th minute. At the end of the second period, Alexei Isakov’s team had five goals off just 15 shots; visiting head coach Alexei Zhamnov still kept faith with starting goalie Alexander Georgiyev and that proved to be a sound decision when the home team managed just one goal in the final frame.
To nobody’s great surprise, that effort from Atanasov came on yet another power play. His 52nd-minute marker made it 6-5 barely a minute after Luke Lockhart hauled Spartak level yet again. But it was Torpedo’s last hurrah. Within a couple of minutes the Muscovites made it 6-6 thanks to Nathan Todd and a rare goal at equal strength. But, on a day that brought 36 minutes of penalties, the outcome was settled by special teams. Mikhail Maltsev put Spartak ahead for the first time in the 58th minute after Vladimir Firstov’s tripping minor. Then the visitor survived a last-minute scare when Orlov went to the box and Torpedo threw everything into a six-on-four charge that came up just short.
Dominant Ak Bars overpowers Avto
Ak Bars Kazan 5 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 0 (2-0, 1-0, 2-0)
After losing its first two games against the Motormen this season, Ak Bars responded with an emphatic victory in the third meeting of the two. Timur Bilyalov stopped 19 shots while Grigory Denisenko celebrated his first goal since Nov. 21.
Things might have been different for Avtomobilist had Reid Boucher not wasted a glorious early chance to score. He was unable to steer the puck into an open net as the home defense scrambled to save the situation.
And the game took a decisive turn after 15 minutes. Artyom Galimov put the home team up with a redirect on Mitch Miller’s point shot. Then Alexander Chmelevski doubled the lead 90 seconds later to give the home team a solid advantage. In between the two, Denisenko saw his penalty shot well saved by Vladimir Galkin as Ak Bars tightened the screws.
The Motormen had a power play that straddled the first intermission, but it did not offer a way back into the game. The Ak Bars PK made it difficult to set up play in the O-zone and repelled the situation comfortably. Then came a third goal for the host, scored by captain Alexander Barabanov. The 3-0 scoreline was a fair reflection of the balance of play: by the end of the middle frame, Ak Bars was up 29-9 on the shot count.
And the goals continued in the third. Denisenko contributed two points in the 45th minute, firing home a great shot past a Yekaterinburg D-man, then setting up Mikhail Fisenko to score from the slot. That padded the score to 5-0, killing off any theoretical chance of a fightback and ensuring the last 15 minutes were largely exhibition stuff. Ak Bars remains second in the East, now six points behind leader Metallurg.
Kayumov’s shoot-out winner puts Loko back on top
CSKA Moscow 1 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 SO (0-1, 0-0, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Igor Nikitin suffered his fourth loss in four games against his former club, Lokomotiv. Since rejoining CSKA the head coach has been unable to defeat the team he led to last year’s championship. However, he can point to progress: after comfortable wins for the Railwaymen in the first two encounters, this was the second time the pair went to a shoot-out.
Lokomotiv began with plenty of possession, but relatively few chances. The visitor’s shots tended to be straightforward for Dmitry Gamzin in the home net. CSKA came into the game and earned a power play without finding a breakthrough. After killing that penalty, Lokomotiv got in front. A brilliant pass from Richard Panik sent Byron Froese through on Gamzin’s net and he finished it off in the 13th minute. Panik might have doubled the lead on his next shift but could not find the target.
CSKA’s best opportunities continued to come on the power play, with two such chances at the start of the second period. But Lokomotiv’s PK is well-drilled – a feature of the team under Bob Hartley, just as it was under Nikitin. Daniil Isayev was underemployed as the visitor proved adept at winning second-phase possession and depriving the Muscovites of shooting chances.
After spurning three power plays in the second, CSKA handed Lokomotiv its first PP at the start of the third. But, after killing Nikolai Kovalenko’s penalty, the home team managed to unlock the Yaroslavl defense at last. An error at the back invited Denis Zernov to attack, and he took full advantage. That put the momentum behind CSKA, but despite more energy the host struggled to convert it into scoring chances. Lokomotiv, drained by its second-period PK efforts, proved content to get through to a shoot-out, where Artur Kayumov secured the win that took the visitor back to the top of the Western Conference.
