Two-time Stanley Cup and Gagarin Cup champion, Slava Kozlov played his farewell game in his hometown Voskresensk a few days ago but guess who stole the show in spite of the presence of a number of NHL superstars?Alex Ovechkin, of course.
Kozlov organized a lineup full of current and past NHL stars and decided to give all the game’s proceedings to the Kolomna Children’s Institute. The game was organized by the Russian hockey charity organization “Ot Chistogo Serdtsa” (From the bottom of the heart), which every year organizes similar charity games, usually with the participation of Russian NHL stars.
The game featured Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeny Malkin, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Valeri Kamensky, German Titov and many other players, as well as governors and businessmen from the region. On Twitter, Alex Gusev gifted us with the highlight of the night, a great between-the-legs shootout goal by Alex the Great.
A penalty shot by @ovi8 in the farewell match of Slava Kozlov (Voskresensk, Moscow Region) #icehockey #Ovechkin pic.twitter.com/OuHx9EB2VU
— Alex Gusev (@Gusev_EN) August 21, 2016
If that’s not enough, Ovechkin had fun playing against kids from the local hockey academy (that produced players like Kozlov himself, Kamensky, Igor Larionov, and many others), and even played in goal.
Video published by Евсей Кустарёв (@evsey_kustarev) on:
A former Russian Five member, Slava Kozlov is now an assistant coach for the KHL’s Spartak Moscow. In this 2014 interview, he told many interesting anecdotes about his career.