Tatarstan was the perfect host for the KHL All-Star Week and Kazan staged a fantastic finale. From Mathew Maione’s singing to Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s penalty shot, it was a weekend of indelible memories.

Day two of the All-Star action in Kazan was even more compelling than Saturday’s Skill Show. Pulsating hockey action in front of another capacity crowd brought 36 goals in 80 minutes of game time, plus a shoot-out to snap a 7-7 tie.

Team Chernyshev won the KHL All-Star Skill Show on the first day of action in Kazan. Bob Hartley’s team won three of the five events to take the honors ahead of tomorrow’s four-team All-Star tournament.

It’s all eyes on Tatarstan as the KHL’s festival of hockey gets started. In regular season action, three teams booked their playoff places and our World Junior stars came home from Canada.

SKA’s offense caught fire in the second period to lead the team to a 4-0 win at Lokomotiv. That result, coupled with Dinamo Riga’s loss in Ufa, means the Army Men are the third team to guarantee a post season berth. Kunlun Red Star kept alive its hopes of making the playoffs, winning 3-1 at Barys. Admiral defeated Amur by the same scoreline in the Far East derby.

The assistant coaches at the 2019 All-Star Game, which takes place in Kazan on Jan. 19-20, will be four leading female broadcasters: Darya Mironova, Natalya Klark, Maria Bass and Evgeniya Golovina.

CSKA marched into the playoffs, becoming the first team to book its place in post season on Sunday thanks to a 2-1 win at Dinamo Minsk. That was without young defenseman Alexander Romanov, one of 15 KHL prospects who helped Russia to bronze at the World Juniors in Vancouver. Elsewhere, Dynamo Moscow returned home and Drew Shore got off to a flying start as a Dragon in China.

Metallurg and Spartak both hit seven in big wins over Torpedo and Sibir respectively. Kunlun Red Star came out on top in a seven-goal thriller against Admiral. Avangard extended Neftekhimik’s seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 win in Nizhnekamsk and Barys won 3-0 at Sochi.

Dynamo Moscow opened the doors to its new arena for the first time – and closed the door on Avtomobilist in a 2-0 win. Defending champion Ak Bars enjoyed a 3-1 victory over Salavat Yulaev in the ‘Green Derby’, and there were hard-fought road wins for CSKA and SKA.

The first gameday of 2019 brought an exciting game in Kazan, where Ak Bars needed overtime to defeat Avangard 4-3. There were more close encounters in Shanghai and Moscow where Admiral and Barys both came from behind to collect 3-2 road wins. In Helsinki, Jokerit eased to a 4-1 success against Sibir.

The Old Year is almost done, so it’s time to recap. Here’s an informal, highly subjective, decidedly non-official rundown of some of the people, places, tournaments and teams that made 2018 another memorable year in KHL hockey.

Happy New Year! S Novym Godom! Hyvää uutta vuotta! šťastný nový rok! Laimīgu Jauno gadu! 新年快樂! Jaña jıl quttı bolsın! Z Novym Hodom!

The 2018 KHL program came to an end with another exciting round of games. Pride of place went to Avangard, which recovered from 0-3 to defeat Barys in a shoot-out. Dinamo Riga and Dynamo Moscow traded nine goals, with the Latvians coming out on top. There were narrow wins for league leader CSKA and defending champion Ak Bars, while Kunlun Red Star revitalized its playoff hopes with a 2-0 win at Traktor to cut the gap to eighth place to just two points in the East.

Two goals from David Rundblad saved SKA from defeat at Admiral in the only KHL game of the day. In the Spengler Cup there was disappointment for Metallurg with a 1-3 loss against Nuremberg Ice Tigers.

The KHL, together with Atributka & Club and BAUER, its technical partners for the 2019 Week of Hockey Stars, is proud to unveil the uniforms for this season’s biggest hockey show, which will take place in Tatarstan in January.

The head coaches who will take charge of the teams at this year’s KHL All-Star Game have been announced. Ilya Vorobyov (SKA) will be behind the bench for Team Bobrov, CSKA’s Igor Nikitin will take the reins for Team Tarasov, Kazan legend Zinetula Bilyaletdinov heads Team Kharlamov and KHL newcomer Bob Hartley (Avangard) coaches Team Chernyshev. The quartet will lead their respective teams at the Skill Show and All-Star Games to be played in Kazan on Jan. 19 and 20.

All of Tuesday’s action came in the Far East. Amur got an early Christmas present with a 2-1 victory at home to Vityaz, then Red Star and SKA served up a cracker in Shanghai.

St. Petersburg was the focal point for the latest big event of the season – and the Winter Classic between SKA and CSKA was a huge hit on and off the ice. Elsewhere, Nigel Dawes keeps scoring and Sergei Shumakov made an instant impact.

Avtomobilist forward Nigel Dawes extended his productive streak to eight games with the opening goal in Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Traktor. Elsewhere, Metallurg goalie Vasily Koshechkin posted his 300th KHL victory as Slovan’s winless streak reached 13 games. Vityaz boosted its playoff hopes with victory in China, but Kunlun missed the chance to return to the top eight in the East.

A huge crowd – 67,770 – assembled in St. Petersburg to witness the latest instalment of the SKA vs CSKA rivalry. That is, by far, a record for the KHL (the previous best, from last season’s open-air encounter between Jokerit and SKA, was 50,000 smaller) and also the biggest attendance for a club hockey game anywhere in Russia. Fittingly, the big day came on the anniversary of the first ever game day in the Soviet Hockey Championship, played on Dec. 22, 1946. The showcase game, played at Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, highlighted how far the game has developed since those early days: today, Russia’s hockey stars are capable of taking over and filling the country’s biggest and most sophisticated soccer arenas – an almost unprecedented demonstration of the massive potential of our game.