In Astana, the Barys hockey club lost to Nizhnekamsk's Neftekhimik 3-6 in a rescheduled regular-season match of the 2026/27 Kontinental Hockey League season. The game, originally scheduled for Friday, was postponed due to a national day of mourning, infohub.kz reports.
According to an informal tradition that has emerged this KHL season, if Barys scores first, it always wins. However, today it turned out that the omen also works in reverse: in the current campaign, the Kazakhstani team has conceded first three times and lost each time.
In the 7th minute, Nizhnekamsk's Damir Zhafyarov, who played for Barys last season, scored the goal that proved decisive.
KONTINENTAL HOCKEY LEAGUE 2026/27. Eastern Conference. September 26.
BARYS (Astana, Kazakhstan) – NEFTEKHIMIK (Nizhnekamsk, Russia) 3:6 (0:1, 0:4, 3:1).
Goals: Zhafyarov (Belozerov, Nikolishin) 06:08 (0:1), Seleznev (Nadvorny, Sokolov) 23:55 (0:2), Tochilkin (Zhafyarov, Nikolishin) 25:06 (0:3), Petunin (Eremenko, Bikmullin) 28:19-PP (0:4), Sokolov (Bikmullin) 38:22-SH (0:5), Pilon (Priskie, Thompson) 41:10-PP (1:5), Simonov (Logvin, Sarkenov) 45:12 (2:5), Tyanulin (Khlystov, Bikmullin) 46:39 (2:6), Omirbekov (Britikov, Kairzhan) 50:42 (3:6).
With the score at 0:3 in the second period, Astana goaltender Andrei Shutov, who had performed well in recent games, was replaced in net by Hunter Shepard. The American ended up conceding the same number of goals, once again confirming the notion that Barys currently has two equal goaltenders.
Trailing 0:5, Mikhail Kravets's charges remembered that they can play hockey (and play it well!). Garrett Pilon, Semyon Simonov and Alikhan Omirbekov each beat Yaroslav Ozolin once.
The visitors, however, were not too upset. The win in Astana allowed them to temporarily top the Eastern Conference standings.
The KHL regular season, which began on September 5, will run until March 20, 2027. Each of the 22 teams will play 68 games. Based on the regular season, 8 teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs.
Tomorrow, the Astana team will host SKA at Barys Arena, and then will embark on a tour that will take them to Kazan, Nizhnekamsk and Moscow.