Russian hockey player apologizes after racist gesture during game
Hockey Player Stas Petrosyan is apologizing after making a racist gesture towards an opponent during a hockey game. Petrosyan's team, Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk of the Supreme Hockey League, was involved in a preseason game against Kunlan Red Star Sunday. Red Star is the only Chinese team operating in the KHL. Petrosyan was involved in a fight near the end of the game with Kunlan's Yang Hu. While being escorted off the ice to the penalty box, Petrosyan made a racist gesture towards the Chinese player.
«At the end of the match we had a five-on-four powerplay. I go into the zone, throw the puck, and Tyler Wong, the 91st Kunlun number, hits me in the shoulder with a club...And the fight started, I took off my gloves. Then another player ran into me. We were separated," said Petrosyan. "Then number 8 Yang Hu started shouting to me, "F--k you, Armenian. This is an insult to me and my nation. At that moment, my head started to move. And out of emotion, I began to show these ugly gestures in his direction. But what he was shouting, no one heard but me."
"Many people expressed their outrage. I would like to sincerely and publicly apologize to the people of Kazakhstan and everyone whom I have offended with my gesture," he said.
You can see the sequence below, with the gesture being made around 50 seconds in.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 4, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Brett Howden | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mark Jankowski | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mark Stone | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Dylan Coghlan | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||