Aimurzin scores five, Dronov puts on an All-Star show
Danil Aimurzin scored five goals as the KHL RUS Stars powered to victory in the 2026 Fonbet KHL All-Star Game. The U23 Stars grabbed an early lead in the final, but Aimurzin singlehandedly turned it around with four straight goals. Earlier, Grigory Dronov was the center of attention as KHL Ural Stars beat KHL World Stars in the third-place playoff.
In the Skill Show, Neftekhimik head coach Igor Grishin won the inaugural coaches’ challenge, with Dronov and Vladimir Galkin winning their events.
RUS Stars overwhelm youngsters
KHL RUS Stars 9 KHL U23 Stars 2 (5-1, 4-1)
Severstal’s Danil Aimurzin plundered five goals to set KHL RUS Stars on the way to All-Star success. He got four in a row in the first period, helping his team to a 5-1 lead after Spartak’s 22-year-old defenseman Daniil Orlov opened the scoring in the first minute for the youngsters.
It’s worth noting that Aimurzin himself was only a few months older than the cut-off to play for the U23 Stars: had this format existed last season, his goals might have brought a different outcome.
He formed a handy understanding with Vadim Shipachyov, another player who emerged at Severstal. The KHL’s all-time scoring leader assisted as Aimurzin scored twice in 23 seconds midway through the first period.
In the second period, Andrei Belozyorov added to his three-point game in the semi-final. The Neftekhimik man scored twice more, having assisted on Konstantin Okulov’s first-period effort for the RUS Stars.
The youngsters might have got back into contention, but missed three (!?) penalty shots in the second stanza. Artyom Bondar fluffed one opportunity, Orlov squandered two more.
The youngsters, overwhelmed, jokingly put their entire roster on the ice in a bid to overcome the odds but inevitably attracted a too many men call. That enabled Aimurzin to show how a penalty shot should be done, beating Sergei Ivanov with a backhand finish to claim his fifth of the game.
Shipachyov added a ninth, but the U23s had the final say when Mikhail Ilyin – another Severstal prospect – beat Maxim Dorozhko with 41 seconds to play.
Welcome to the Dronov Show
KHL Ural Stars 9 KHL World Stars 6 (6-3, 3-3)
Traktor defenseman Grigory Dronov turned into the star man at the All-Star bronze medal game.
It wasn’t so much his goal and assist in a 9-6 win for his, more his determination to enter to the fun spirit of All-Star Weekend in the second period.
The first Dronov set piece came in the 13th minute, gently settling a few scores with the officials. After colliding with ref Maxim Stronganov, he handed the linesman a major penalty. Later came another incident when the refs awarded penalty shots at both ends. First, Dronov failed to beat Zach Fucale, his former Traktor team-mate now with Dinamo Minsk. Quick to prove a point, he quickly donned his own goalie gear to face Fucale’s response – and finished off with an impressive glove save after fouling his opponent during the first attempt.
Earlier, the Ural Stars raced into a 6-0 lead. Metallurg’s Kantserov line opened the scoring after just 11 seconds and the Yekaterinburg crowd enjoyed watching its local heroes take control of the game, scoring at a rate of a goal a minute.
However, the World Stars rallied late in the frame: there was a Ural accent to the first goal, scored by Avtomobilist’s Daniel Sprong (the Dutchman was playing for CSKA when he was selected for the All-Star Game and remained on the import team). Before the intermission Kevin Labanc (Shanghai Dragons) scored and assisted on Andrew Poturalski’s (Avangard) effort to make it 6-3 at the intermission.
In between Dronov’s star turn, the teams traded six more goals in the second period. Avto’s Roman Gorbunov made it 7-3 before the World Stars threatened a fightback. Vitaly Pinchuk (Dinamo Minsk) and Mitch Miller (Ak Bars) got it back to 7-5 before Mikhail Grigorenko and Roman Kantserov’s second of the night made it safe for the Urals.
The second round of the Skill Show saw Dronov to the fore again. Fresh from his performance in the bronze medal game, the Traktor D-man entered the Hardest Shot competition. He faced tough competition from Avangard’s Damir Sharipzyanov, but took the win with a mighty blast at 154.88 kph, against Sharipzyanov’s best attempt of 152.65 kph.
Avtomobilist’s fans in the UGMK Arena enjoyed the goalie contest as one of their own came out on top. Vladimir Galkin topped the charts ahead of Sergei Ivanov, Zach Fucale and Filipp Dolganov in a new-look challenge that tests shooting power and accuracy as well as shot-stopping skills. Galkin’s most powerful shot clocked in at 106.67 kph, well ahead of second-placed Ivanov with 88.92.
Finally came the coaches’ challenge – a new addition for 2026. Each of the four teams’ coaching staff had one shot each from the goal line, with the winner being the man who got the puck closest to the center dot. Andrei Razin has apparently been following the Winter Olympics and tried to use a curling sweep to clear his opponents’ pucks from the ice. But his trick didn’t work and, in a fair fight, Igor Grishin (Neftekhimik, KHL U23 Stars) claimed the win with the final shot of the contest.
