Charity Debacle: How Ovechkin and Company defeated KHL Stars

A team of Russian NHL stars scored a major victory over KHL players in the "Match of the Year" — 15:3. The game was played at the CSKA Arena in Moscow. Vasily Podkolzin scored a hat trick for the NHL national team, Maxim Tsyplakov scored a double, Artemy Panarin, Andrey Svechnikov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Pavel Buchnevich, Kirill Marchenko, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Kirill Kaprizov, Matvey Michkov and Andrey Kuzmenko each scored a goal. Ilya Kovalchuk, Vitaly Kravtsov and Nikolai Goldobin scored goals for the KHL team. The first such match took place in July 2024. Then the game ended in an 8-8 draw.

Honoring Ovi

The Match of the Year, a charity game featuring the best Russian NHL and KHL hockey players, is taking place for the second summer in a row. This time, he was preceded by an active PR company: first, Artemy Panarin and Mikhail Sergachev rode the subway in a branded jersey, and then they went through various podcasts together.

The match was held in Moscow again, as it was a year ago. Although Sergachev— one of the organizers of the event, promises that next year the stars of our hockey will be seen not only in the capital.

— We consider absolutely all cities: Kazan, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Novosibirsk. These are very hockey cities, and the hype may be even higher than in Moscow," he said in an interview with RB Sport.

Why did you choose Moscow this year? The answer is simple: Alexander Ovechkin. The native of the capital broke Wayne Gretzky's record at the end of the regular season and became the best sniper in NHL history. And after that, how can you not give him his due? By the way, this information channel was also reflected on the ice of the CSKA Arena, where the meeting took place. An Ovechkin office was staked out on both sides of the site.

The spectators who came to the game just for Alexander's sake were probably satisfied: they managed to see three Ovechkins live on the ice at once — the Washington forward went out with his children.

Ovi and the others: what can fans expect from the "Match of the Year"

The stars of Russian and American hockey will take to the ice in the middle of summer

Before the match, Ovi held a ceremony honoring. And this version is definitely no worse than the one that Washington prepared for its striker after the record. At least the Capitals didn't give Ovechkin a car. Here he also received a crossover from one of the Chinese manufacturers.

Michkova's Superball

Usually, the result of all such matches is the same — "friendship won." But not this time. If there was a hint of some kind of competition after the first 20 minutes (the teams left for the break with the score 5:3 in favor of the "West" - the NHL national team), then in the second period the real beating began: the Enchaelites sent seven (!) unanswered goals into the opponent's goal.

Ovechkin also distinguished himself. But he threw his puck not from the "office" that the organizers had drawn for him, but from a nickel.

In the third period, the game calmed down completely: the audience saw only three goals (all ended up in the goal of the KHL national team). But it was during this segment that the main highlight of the match took place: Matvey Michkov scored a lacrosse goal. I'm sure this video will be sent to ex-Philadelphia coach John Tortorella many times today. Perhaps Matvey himself will do it.

The final score is 15:3. The NHL national team, whose players' season starts only in mid-October, turned out to be much fresher than the KHL players, who need to go to the preseason very soon.