Former NHL scoring leader Alexander Mogilny netted his team's first and last goals of the game to lead his Stars of Russia team over host Spartak Moscow in a charity match Friday night, marking a historic return by Russian players to their native country.


But underdog Spartak, taking on some of the best players in the world, did not let the visitors get away without a scare. After the NHL squad jumped out to a 4-0 lead, Spartak -- keyed by its own NHL players -- scored two goals in a minute late in the third period to draw within a goal, before Mogilny iced the 5-4 victory.


The returning stars were, as expected, given a proper heroes' welcome by everyone from Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to Miss World contestants to fans young and old. But the capacity crowd at 4,700-seat Sokolniki arena also rooted for the home side as it mounted its comeback following the first two periods dominated by the NHL stars.


The opening game of a five-game charity tour by the NHL players -- locked out in North America in a labor dispute with team owners -- predictably lacked the intensity of regular-season games, especially as the visitors were skating off the kinks from a long layoff.


Still, Pavel Bure, nicknamed the "Russian Rocket" when playing with the Vancouver Canucks, showed his electrifying speed on skates just past the 14-minute mark of the first period, breaking down ice with the puck and leaving the Spartak goalie with a Hobson's choice of challenging him or guarding against Mogilny on the right wing. The goalie hesitated, and Bure fed his former CSKA teammate for the easy goal.


Alexander Semak added another goal for the NHL team less than a minute later, but the relaxed first period wound down with the crowd surprisingly dormant.


Some of the game's biggest cheers went up early in the second period when one fan finally was successful in orchestrating an American-style "wave" around the arena -- even though participation invariably dipped in the VIP sections. Shortly afterward, Bure added his own goal at the 9:43 mark, and Sergei Nemchinov added another at 13:38 to make it 4-0.


Spartak, which early on failed to capitalize on a number of two-on-one and three-on-one breaks, finally got on the board before going to the dressing room with an Alexei Tkachuk goal with 10 seconds left in the second period.


The score stayed 4-1 until midway through the third period, when Sergei Butka and Nikolai Borschevsky -- who plays with the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs but has rejoined Spartak during the lockout -- scored at 10:36 and 11:37, drawing full-throttle cheers from the crowd which felt an upset could be in the making.


But Mogilny, who scored 76 goals to lead the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres two years ago, added his second of the game a minute later to provide the visitors with a 5-3 cushion. Ilya Byakin -- also playing with Spartak from the NHL's Edmonton Oilers -- fired a long shot in for the final goal with five minutes remaining.


One of the real stars for the visitors was goalie Yevgeny Ryabchikov, who has not yet played in the NHL. The first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins deftly and coolly handled Spartak's challenges in the first two periods, before Spartak mounted its third-period rally.


The NHL and its players union have set up another round of contract negotiations for next week, but a league official said "there is a very real risk there is not going to be a hockey season," the Associated Press reported from East Rutherford, New Jersey.


"The clock is ticking, the fuse is burning shorter and shorter,'' Brian Burke, NHL vice president in charge of hockey operations, said Thursday. He went on, "These days, I don't have a lot of hope'' of saving the season.


"Even if we settled at midnight tonight, you're looking at 10-14 days to prepare for the season,'' Burke said.