Filimonov and Bondar get final All-Star spots

Team East 4 Team West 7 (0-6, 3-0, 1-1)

The 2026 Fonbet KHL All-Star Weekend began in Yekaterinburg with the traditional East vs West battle for the Junior Hockey League Challenge Cup.
And it turned into a shocker of a start for the East, down 6-0 (!?) after the first period. Vitaly Chernochub, whose day job is behind the bench as Omskiye Yastreby, was forced to call a time-out inside 10 minutes and replaced starting goalie Mikhail Konovalov in the 18th as everything the West tried seemed to bring another goal.

Much of the damage was done by Spartak prospect Maxim Filimonov and his Dynamo Moscow counterpart Artyom Bondar. Filimonov had 3 (1+2) points, while Bondar scored two goals. That earned the due a call to the main event, and they’ll join the KHL U23 Stars line-up for the remainder of the All-Star Weekend. Alexei Dontsov, of CSKA’s juniors, might count himself unfortunate not to join them after a three-point game of his own.

After that calamitous opening stanza, the East hit back. Metallurg’s Nikita Poltavchuk and Kazan’s Said Gimayev scored two early goals, prompting Loko’s Oleg Tauber to call a time-out. The East got it back to 3-6 by the second intermission but could make no further in-roads as the teams traded goals in the final stanza.

More than 10,000 fans came to the UGMK Arena for the start of the weekend spectacle. Tomorrow the action continues with the All-Star semi-final match-ups – KHL U23 vs KHL World, then KHL Ural vs KHL RUS – and the start of the skill show. Sunday sees the culmination of that skill show, plus the gold and bronze games.