Big week for goalscorers
Hockey is all about getting pucks in net, and week 20 of the KHL was all about the players who do that. An all-time great reached a historic landmark, a prolific D-man achieved an unexpected ‘first’, imports hit rich veins of form and the league leader went goal crazy. One man stood up to the trend, setting a club record shut-out streak.
Shipachyov scores 1,000th point
Vadim Shipachyov secured his place in history on Monday evening when his assist on the winning goal against Admiral took him to 1,000 KHL points. The league’s record scorer set a new bar for productivity in the KHL when he helped Vadim Moroz score a late goal in a 2-1 win.
Shipachyov played 1,102 games to reach the landmark. He scored 314 goals and contributed 686 assists. His career began at his hometown club, Severstal, and took in spells as SKA, Dynamo Moscow, Ak Bars and Dinamo Minsk. He won the Gagarin Cup in 2015 and 2017, both with SKA.
Gallant leaves Dragons
Gerard Gallant formally stepped down as Shanghai Dragons’ head coach on Tuesday. The Canadian had missed several games due to illness and has been replaced by Mike Kelly as an interim head coach. Gallant, who coached Team Canada to gold at the 2016 World Championship in Moscow, took charge of the Dragons in the summer as the former Kunlun Red Star underwent a rebrand and relocated to St. Petersburg. He won 15 of his 38 games in charge.
Metallurg goal rush
KHL leader and top scorer Metallurg went goal crazy this week, blasting 17 in just two games. It started with a 9-0 thrashing of Sochi on Wednesday, setting a club record victory on the KHL. Then, on Sunday, Magnitka began its Far East tour with an 8-4 victory at Admiral. Andrei Razin’s team as 190 goals in 45 games, a strike rate of 4.2. Leading goalscorer Roman Kantserov has 27, four clear in the KHL goal race; Vladimir Tkachyov’s 52 (10+42) points has him second in the scoring race behind Dinamo Minsk’s Sam Anas.
Sprong on song
Daniel Sprong, who recently joined Avtomobilist from CSKA, potted his first goals for his new club. The Dutchman scored twice in a 6-2 win over Salavat Yulaev on Saturday, which also halted Ufa’s winning start to 2026.
Sharipzyanov hat-trick
Avangard captain Damir Sharipzyanov had a game-winning hat-trick for his team in a 5-2 success at Traktor. That made him the first defenseman to score two hat-tricks in the KHL. “I didn’t even know I was the first,” he said after the game. “I just did what I always do and the guys set up good shots for me and screened the goalie like they do in every game.”
Liska, Rempal in red-hot form
Severstal captain Adam Liska scored his first KHL hat-trick last week, potting a treble in a 6-4 win over Dinamo Minsk. The Slovak international has been tearing it up lately, with 15 (11+4) points in his last 10 games. Meanwhile, Sheldon Rempal of Salavat Yulaev has been even more effective. He’s on an 11-game streak with 22 points in that time. With that kind of scoring power, it’s no surprise that the Ufa club won its first five games of 2026 to move up to sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Ozolin sets club record
But the week was not only about scoring feats. On Tuesday, Yaroslav Ozolin celebrated his first shut-out in the KHL. By Saturday, he had Neftekhimik’s longest shut-out streak. The run started with 27 saves in a 2-0 Tatarstan derby win at Ak Bars. The 25-year-old followed that with a 1-0 win at Barys and stopped another 38 shots in Novosibirsk before he was beaten late in a 3-1 success over Sibir. His total sequence of 213:34 is a Neftekhimik club record and the 17th longest in KHL history.
