New arena, new milestone and hot streaks go cold

Week three of the KHL season saw the long-awaited opening of Torpedo’s new home. A veteran forward joined the elite 300-club of top goalscorers, and the last unbeaten start to the season came to an end.

VOLGA Arena opens in style

Nizhny Novgorod’s long-awaited new arena hosted its first KHL game on Monday – and what a game it was. A crowd of 12,350 set a record attendance for a Torpedo game, and those fans were rewarded with an epic battle on opening night. Visitor Ak Bars scored with its first shot, but Torpedo rallied. Daniil Seroukh was the first home player to find the net at the VOLGA, and the host built a 3-1 lead by the end of the second period. Ex-Torpedo forward Yegor Sokolov got one back for the Tatars, but after a tense finale the game ended in a home victory.

Loko’s winning start wrecked

After six games, Lokomotiv was the only team in the KHL without a defeat on its record this season. But game seven brought Barys to Yaroslavl – and the league’s most prolific offense ran riot. A 5-0 win for the visitor brought a comprehensive end to Dmitry Kvartalnov’s flying start on his return as Loko head coach. Barys, meanwhile, is up to 27 goals from six games this season. Summer signings Justin Bailey (6+4) and Garret Pilon (2+5) lead the team in scoring; local prospect Semyon Simonov has 3+3.

300 goals for Radulov

Before that loss to Barys, Lokomotiv defeated Traktor for the second time this season. And in Chelyabinsk, Alexander Radulov joined Sergei Mozyakin and Vadim Shipachyov in becoming the third player to score 300 goals in the KHL. Radulov reached 300 in his 802nd game. Currently, the 40-year-old on 829 (301+528) points from 805 appearances for Salavat Yulaev, CSKA, Ak Bars and Lokomotiv.

Goldobin leads scoring race

Neither Bailey nor Radulov currently leads the KHL in scoring, though. That honor goes to SKA’s Nikolai Goldobin. He’s on 12 (1+11) from six games, boosted by a five-point performance in a 7-2 win over Shanghai Dragons during the week. The former Shark and Canuck also reached 200 KHL assists in that game. But the 30-year-old has one quirk this season: all of his points so far have come in home games.

Severstal struggles for goals

Scoring of that caliber would be welcome in Cherepovets right now. After two seasons as one of the league’s most attack-minded teams, the 2026/2027 edition is finding it tough to hit the net. A 2-0 loss at Admiral on Saturday means it’s three full games – or 214:43 – since Denis Yan scored on Lokomotiv in a 1-2 loss more than a week ago.

Brylin claims first win

It took five attempts, but three-time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Brylin got his first victory as head coach of Dinamo Minsk. The Devils legend is in his first role as head coach at any level, and a 4-1 win over Sibir on Friday got him off the mark. Two goals from Nicolas Aube-Kubel led the way, while defenseman Ty Smith has picked up assists in each of his six games so far this season. Dinamo followed that success with a 5-3 win over Avtomobilist on Sunday.

Sochi stuns Ak Bars

The same night saw another losing streak come to an end as Sochi took a 3-2 verdict over Ak Bars. The Leopards rallied after a 0-4 loss to CSKA and never trailed against the visitor. A third-period goal from scoring leader Denis Vengryzhanovsky settled the outcome. Unlike the Belarusians, Sochi was unable to build on that result and suffered a 1-5 drubbing at the hands of Sibir on Sunday.

Tambijevs grabs win in 103 seconds

Dynamo Moscow head coach Leonids Tambijevs made his first trip to the visitor’s locker room at Admiral after working in Vladivostok for several seasons. And he left with a win thanks to an astonishing scoring surge. The Muscovites were down 0-2 at the first intermission, but scored three goals in 103 seconds at the start of the second to turn the game around. A goaltending error started the fightback, Pavel Shen’s one-timer tied it up, then Sergei Zborovsky bagged the decider in a 3-2 verdict.

Spartak’s surge ends in Ufa

After an opening day loss, Spartak rolled out a five-game winning streak. But that came to an end on Sunday at Salavat Yulaev. Teenage defensive Nikita Shcherbakov opened the scoring and Canadian forward Matthew Maggio got the decider in a 3-1 win for Viktor Kozlov’s team.