14-goal thriller leads Wednesday night’s card. September 9 round-up

An incredible game in Astana saw Barys win 8-6 at home to Salavat Yulaev. That makes it back-to-back wins for the goal-hungry Kazakhs, who have 15 in two games to date. Elsewhere, goals were harder to find. CSKA claimed a first win of the season with a 3-0 verdict over Torpedo, Ak Bars made it three from three after downing Traktor at home. Lada returned to SKA and suffered a repeat of its OT loss in Saturday’s opener and a shoot-out brought Dynamo a first win of the season at home to Admiral.

Goal glut in Astana

Barys Astana 8 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 6 (4-1, 2-2, 2-3)

Astana is the place to go for goals so far this season. Barys banged in seven in its opening game of the season and went one better tonight in a14-goal thriller against Salavat Yulaev.

Given the final score, it won’t be much of a surprise that neither team defended all that well. The first period brought lapses at both ends: a weak defensive effort presented Barys with a four-on-two rush after three minutes, and Alikhan Omirbekov’s feed from out wide presented Tyce Thompson with the opener at the back door. But a similar collapse at the other end saw Alexander Zharovsky tie the game midway through the frame.

Penalty trouble undermined Ufa: Artyom Nabiyev and Maxim Zagrebin went to the box in the same incident, and it took just 23 seconds for Chase Priskie to unwrap that gift. At equal strength, Barys padded the lead on a goal from Mason Morelli. And before the intermission, another power play brought a fourth home goal, scored by Justin Bailey.

Salavat Yulaev hit back in the second period and dragged the scoreline back to 3-4. Devin Brosseau claimed his first of the season, then Sheldon Rempal followed suit on the power play. But any fightback was swiftly stifled: two goals in 18 seconds saw Thompson and Logan Day rebuild a commanding Kazakh lead.

And the goals kept coming in the third. Ansar Shaykhmeddenov and Kirill Lyapunov added to the Barys tally, while Ufa kept things interesting with tallies from Jack Rodewald (PP) and two from Danil Alalykin.

Three from three for Ak Bars

Ak Bars Kazan 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (1-0, 1-1, 0-0)

A third successive victory for Ak Bars calmed some of the concerns for Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men at the start of the season. While questions about roster depth in Kazan remain, a solid home start puts the Tatars to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Traktor had Norwegian goalie Henrik Haukeland back in the starting role. The World Championship bronze medallist had a tough debut in a 1-5 loss at Lokomotiv, but Scott Gordon called him back into the team despite a 4-3 OT win in Yekaterinburg with Dmitry Nikolayev between the piping.

However, Haukeland gave up an early goal tonight. Kirill Semyonov did it all by himself, forcing a turnover in center ice, deking past Andrei Svetlakov and going to the net to outwit the Norwegian.

Right after that, Semyonov went to the box but Traktor could not capitalize. The visitor continued to press at equal strength and outshot Ak Bars 15-9 through 20 minutes without finding a way past Timur Bilyalov.

At the start of the second, Semyonov was involved again with an assist as Semyon Terekhov doubled the home lead. But Ak Bars ran into trouble soon after and a five-on-three power play helped Nathan Legare halve the deficit for Traktor.

However, despite two goals, scoring chances were hard to find in a middle session dominated by physical battles rather than pulsating offense.

That pattern continued in the third, despite Traktor’s efforts to force the pace. Ak Bars was able to restrict the visitor’s chances for long spells, but still faced an anxious finale. The home team twice had to kill penalties, including a late one for Alexei Marchenko that had Traktor playing six-on-four. Grigory Dronov’s late point shot set the puck bouncing around the slot in the last seconds, but nobody could get the touch that would take the game to overtime.

Gamzin blanks Torpedo to take first win

CSKA Moscow 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 (1-0, 0-0, 2-0)

A shut-out win over Torpedo brought CSKA its first success of the season. Torpedo, which blanked Spartak on its first visit to Moscow, failed to score on its second trip to the capital.

After stumbling in its opener, falling 3-5 to Spartak in a Moscow derby, CSKA responded with a typically tight Igor Nikitin performance.

The Muscovites entertained Torpedo, unbeaten in its first two games, and deployed a familiar Nikitin-style gameplan built on discipline.

At times it was stifling, with few clear chances at either end. But the home team made the breakthrough in the 16th minute. Dmitry Buchelnikov saw his initial wrister from the right-hand circle blocked, but kept battling and regained possession before scoring with a backhand effort.

The second period was goalless, and similarly tight. And with both teams showing impressive discipline, it wasn’t until the 48th minute that we saw the first power play of the night. Torpedo goalie Denis Kostin was assessed a tripping minor and the CSKA PP took advantage 30 seconds later. Denis Guryanov claimed the goal, getting his stick to a Nikolai Kovalenko point shot and steering it beyond the netminder’s reach.

CSKA wrapped up the win with an empty net goal from Pavel Karnaukhov. The Muscovites are off the mark, while Torpedo tastes defeat for the first time this season.

Tambijevs gets first win over former club

Dynamo Moscow 2 Admiral Vladivostok 1 SO (0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Both teams collected their first point of the season after a 1-1 tie in regulation, but the final verdict went to the Blue-and-Whites in a shoot-out.

Dynamo head coach Leonids Tambijevs enjoyed a successful time at Admiral, delivering the Sailors’ best ever KHL result. So far, though, his new role in Moscow has been hard work: two games, two losses at the start of the KHL season.

The quirks of the calendar meant that Tambijevs began his Dynamo career against the coach who had his job at the start of last season – and suffered defeat to Alexei Kudashov’s Avtomobilist. Tonight’s home opener saw him face Admiral, with familiar faces on both sides.

The Sailors began 2026/2027 with a 0-2 loss at Ak Bars. And the visitor would have to wait until the third period here to finally get its opening goal of the season. Yegor Chezganov was the scorer, punished Mikhail Melikov’s foul to tie the game.

Earlier, right at the end of the second period, Chezganov was the guilty party. His foul gave Dynamo its second power play of the night and Jordan Weal took advantage to open the scoring.

Neither team could find a winner in regulation, and in the end it needed a shoot-out to settle the outcome. Dynamo converted all three attempts, while Vladislav Podyapolsky saved from Mikhail Grass to tip the scales in the host’s favor. 

Another OT win for SKA

SKA St. Petersburg 2 Lada Togliatti 1 (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0)

For the second time in three games, SKA claimed an overtime win over Lada. Yegor Savikov struck 15 seconds into the extras to make it three out of three for Igor Larionov’s team.

On opening day, SKA beat Lada but was perilously close to an upset loss against the Motormen. A 5-3 win over Dynamo offered a more convincing SKA performance, but when Lada returned to town those opening night nerves were back.

A goalless first period saw the visitor shade the play. After the intermission, SKA improved, with Igor Larionov’s team encouraged to shot as often as possible.

But Lada did a great job of blocking those shooting lanes, frustrating the home offense and staying in the game. The reward came as the second period drew to a close: Mikhail Belyalov got on the counter attack and came inside from the left-hand board to beat home goalie Sergei Ivanov.

Once in front, Lada continued to look for attacking opportunities. The stats pointed to an even game although, as in the second, SKA remained more committed to banging in shots.

And eventually there was a reward. In the 54th minute, Danil Aimurzin got his first goal since arriving from Severstal. Nikolai Chebykin’s feed went across the front of Andrei Mishurov’s net and Aimurzin’s one-timer brought his team level.

That brought overtime, and on the first shift defenseman Savikov potted his first goal of the season to hand Lada a second dose of OT misery beside the Neva.