KHL
Ceremonial puck drops at hockey games tend to be fairly uneventful affairs. However, that was not the case when an attack dog was brought out onto the ice ahead of a KHL showdown and proceeded to bite both of the players who made their way to the center of the rink for the pregame ritual.
Hockey has its own version of baseball’s first pitch in the form of the ceremonial puck drop, a glorified photo op where various dignitaries get the chance to drop the biscuit at center ice and shake hands with a couple of players before the game gets underway.
Queen Elizabeth II, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sarah Palin (the last of whom received her fair share of boos) are among the notable names who’ve been tapped to drop the puck at an NHL game, but in most cases, the guest of honor tends to be a former player, local celebrity, or a fan linked with a good cause.
In 2022, the Winnipeg Jets gifted a sizeable donation to a youth center in Manitoba that dispatched a service dog to drop the puck while treating fans to a feel-good moment.
That went off without a hitch, but the same cannot be said for what happened when another type of trained canine made its way onto the rink during a recent KHL game.
An attack dog chomped down on a player’s glove and refused to let go during the ceremonial puck drop at a KHL game
On Thursday, Dinamo Minsk welcomed CSKA Moscow to its arena in Belarus for a KHL game that was preceded by a puck drop featuring an attack dog that does its thing for the police force in the country’s capital city.
Moscow’s Pavel Karnaukhov and Minsk’s Andrei Stas were the two players who headed out onto the ice for the ceremony where the K-9 unit was a bit too eager to show off its skills. The dog leapt up and bit Karnaukhov’s jersey before depositing a different kind of biscuit than it’s used to on the dot, and Stas subsequently found himself playing tug-of-war after it latched onto his glove and refused to let go.
Bringing an attack dog out to do the ceremonial faceoff – what could possibly go wrong? 🤣 #DMNvsCSKA #KHL pic.twitter.com/KMFnSQhvmZ
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) November 20, 2025
The dog’s handler spent around 20 seconds trying to diffuse the situation before Stas was reunited with his glove. He appeared to walk away unscathed, and he tallied a goal and an assist as Minsk secured the 5-2 win.