850 Shipachyov points and Gusev's achievement

The new year in the Continental Hockey League began with a number of significant events.

One of them happened in the Ak Bars match with Severstal, which ended with the victory of Zinetula Bilyaletdinov's wards in overtime.

However, attention deserves not only the first success of Kazan under the guidance of a new-old coach, but also the performance of their captain Vadim Shipachyov.

The center forward helped Vyacheslav Voinov score one of two goals and reached the mark of 850 points for his career in the KHL.

Besides him, only the legendary Metallurg Magnitogorsk striker Sergei Mozyakin (928) was able to do this.

Thus, over the next few years, Russian fans will follow not only Alexander Ovechkin's pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's record, but also Shipachev and Mozyakin's dispute in absentia.

If Vadim were in his best shape, in the middle of next season he could overthrow his compatriot from the first line of the best scorers in the KHL, but given his current state, the task is noticeably more complicated.

In this championship, for the first time in nine years, he is gaining fewer points per game (6 + 28 in 46 meetings) and still cannot adapt to the new team.

What can not be said about Nikita Gusev.

The SKA forward is in the top 20 top scorers of the regular season, although he has played almost half as many matches as most competitors.

The next benefit performance fell on the guest confrontation with Traktor, which ended in the defeat of the hosts (3:9).

Moreover, the Russian himself chalked up a goal and three assists, thanks to which he became not only the most productive among the participants in the meeting, but also exchanged five hundred points in the SKA sweater (403).

In the history of the KHL, only three hockey players managed to bring great benefit to one team - Teem Hartikainen (419, Salavat Yulaev), Brandon Bochensky (444, Barys) and all the same Mozyakin (693, Metallurg). 

Hat-tricks of Yashkin and Tkachev

In Chelyabinsk, the show was arranged not only by Gusev, but also by Dmitry Yashkin.

This season, the Czech scored doubles four times, and this time he managed to score a hat-trick - the fifth during his performances in the KHL.

More often than him, only Ilya Kovalchuk (seven), Danis Zaripov (eight), Mozyakin (nine) and Nigel Dawes (11) did it.

Thus, with 29 goals, the army forward broke into the first line in the sniper race, ahead of Brandon Maysek from Avtomobilist.

In turn, in the match with Avtomobilist, Vladimir Tkachev, one of the strongest performers of Avangard, hit the opponent’s gate three times, setting two personal records at once.

For the first time in his career, the striker broke out with a hat-trick and overcame the bar of 42 points for the regular season.

With 44 (16 + 28) points, he became the leader of the list of scorers, equaling the same Macek and another representative of Yekaterinburg - Stefan Da Costa.

Representatives of the Moscow "Dynamo" in this championship are unlikely to compete for individual awards, but the leadership of the team has more than enough reasons to be happy.

And one of them can be called the performance of Igor Chernyshov.

The young striker not only performs well in the Youth Hockey League, but has already managed to shine in the Continental.

In the derby with CSKA, he scored an accurate shot and became the youngest goal scorer in the history of the blue and white (17 years 34 days).

The power of CSKA

True, Chernyshov's goal did not help Dynamo to get the better of the current holder of the Gagarin Cup and extend the unbeaten streak to seven meetings.

CSKA broke the resistance of their principal rival in overtime and may soon reach the second line in the Western Conference table.

In terms of the percentage of victories, Muscovites are second only to teammates from the Northern capital, and recently they have looked impressive at all.

So, in two and a half weeks, Sergei Fedorov's wards won five out of seven matches and dealt with three direct competitors at once.

In addition to Dynamo, during this period, CSKA twice dealt with the main contender for the Continental Cup - SKA, and also took revenge on Lokomotiv, which until recently was considered the main pursuer of St. Petersburg.

The Yaroslavl team approached that confrontation on a series of five victories, but were defeated in overtime.

And this is despite the accurate throw of Stepan Nikulin and 40 saves by Daniil Isaev.

The last victim of the red-blue was the main outsider of the tournament - Sochi.

True, it was not easy for them.

Right up to the very end, the hosts led with a difference of one puck, and 70 seconds before the siren they gave the opponent the right to shoot.

However, Matvey Michkov lost in a duel to Alexander Sharychenkov, and eight seconds before the siren, Konstantin Okulov hit an empty target.

True, this did not spoil the impression of Maxim Tretyak's performance.

The grandson of the legendary goalkeeper made 48 saves.

The crash of the "Motorist"

If the Muscovites continue to climb to the top of the table, then the Yekaterinburgers will lose the advantage obtained earlier.

Some time ago, the wards of Nikolai Zavarukhin competed with SKA for leadership in the league, and now they are on a series of eight defeats and will soon risk losing their first position in the East.

Not only Metallurg and Avangard are on their heels, but also Salavat and Sibir, whose backlog is only four points.

It is also depressing how exactly Avtomobilist is inferior.

During this period, the team scored only 12 goals, and missed 29, losing devastatingly three times.

At the same time, failures in the confrontations with Avangard, which ended with a total score of 1:12, became especially discouraging.

According to Zavarukhin, after the second of them (1:7), a “male conversation” took place in the dressing room of the Yekaterinburg residents, but it did not bring serious dividends.

Even though everything was decided with Tractor only in a shootout, but again not in favor of the hosts.

Apart from Sochi, only Spartak has been looking just as plain lately.

The red-and-whites were beaten in eight out of nine meetings, and Torpedo lost completely devastatingly (2:5).

While the wards of Igor Grishin are holding in the playoff zone, but very soon everything can change.

Dynamo Minsk and Severstal are only two points behind them.