Pushing for a playoff spot

5 December 2023

There’s only one game for the Dragons this week, then we get a well-earned break during the All-Star Game and Channel 1 Cup. With the guys in great form – four wins from five games – we welcome Sochi to Mytishchi looking to close on a place in the top eight. Meanwhile, our players won’t be involved in the upcoming Channel 1 Cup. Team China was due to compete alongside Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in a four-team tournament in St. Petersburg on the weekend on Dec. 14-17. However, due to the demanding KRS schedule, coupled with the need for our guys to step away from KHL duty in February during Olympic Qualification, the common-sense decision was to withdraw from these exhibition games and focus on rest and recovery.

HC Sochi (h), Dec. 5, 1930 Moscow time

Last time out: Game two of the season saw the Leopards provide our first opposition on home ice. And the Dragons made a great start to the home campaign with a 3-0 win. Brandon Yip opened the scoring in the third minute, Devin Brosseau doubled the lead late in the first and Luke Lockhart added number three at the end of the second. Jeremy Smith made 29 saves for his first shut-out of the season.

Familiar faces: 19-year-old forward Alexander Perevalov was on loan with us last season, and had 3 (2+1) points in 27 appearances. He recently joined Sochi, and got his first points for the club with a couple of assists against Lokomotiv, his hometown team.

Background: This might be the only game of the week, but it’s a big one. Sochi is right there with us in the race for the top eight and will be desperate to wipe out our two-point lead. The visitor is showing some signs of a revival after a long losing streak. After a decent start to the season, everything went wrong for Sochi after the departure of Borna Rendulic to SKA. That sent Sochi into a tailspin, winning just one of its next 14 games (ironically against Rendulic’s new club). Since then, things have picked up a little. Nov. 26 brought an encouraging 5-2 win at Amur – the first in regulation since Oct. 5 – and last time out Sochi took Lokomotiv to overtime before losing out to Rushan Rafikov’s goal.

There are signs that Jeremy Bracco, signed from Barys during the season, is starting to find his form. He has 6 (4+2) points in his last seven games. And Matvei Michkov, on loan from SKA, is a persistent threat capable of scoring on any team. However, with 134 goals allowed so far this season, Sochi’s defense is the weakest in the league and our offense – reinforced with the recent additions of Tyler Graovac and Gemel Smith – will be looking forward to exposing any lapses.

2023 All-Star Game

OK, it’s not an official Red Star game, but let’s take a moment to salute our goalie Jeremy Smith. He’ll be representing our club at this season’s All-Star Game in St. Petersburg.

It’s Smitty’s first call-up for the big event, and it’s a richly deserved honor for our hard-working netminder. At times, playing in goal on this team can be hard work: the stats show that few in the KHL face 40+ shots in a game as often as Jeremy. But, night after night, he keeps our guys in games and gives us chances to win. This season, his save percentage is up to 92.8%, his best in the KHL to date, and it’s high time that kind of consistency was recognized.

Smitty is the fifth Kunlun player to go to the All-Star Game. Chad Rau was the first in 2017, followed by another goalie, Magnus Hellberg, in 2018. Brandon Yip made the first of his appearances in 2020. He was back in 2022, where he was joined by Parker Foo after a late call-up to replace the injured Eric O’Dell. In 2019, Marc-Andre Gragnani was nominated but could not take part due to injury.