Winning end to pre-season

27 August 2024

Kunlun Red Star 5 HC Sochi 2

The Dragons wrapped up their pre-season schedule with victory over Sochi in our final game at the Puchkov tournament. Two goals from Luke Lockhart – taking him to five in three games here – plus three points from Spencer Foo led the way for Red Star.

There were a few changes from the team that lost to Severstal in the previous game. Brandon Yip returned to the attack, taking Jayden Halbgewachs place on a line with Nail Yakupov and Tyler Graovac. That trio was also promoted to the first line. On defense, Jake Chelios and Adam Clendening returned as the first pair, with Yury Pautov and Martin Lefebvre rested. Jeremy Smith got the start in goal.

Early Red Star pressure paid off. With barely two minutes gone, Sochi had two players in the box. On three minutes exactly, Kunlun had the puck in the net. Rourke Chartier won the face-off, Clendening stepped up from the point and Lockhart was on the doorstep to squeeze the puck over the line.

The Dragons continued to press, and Yakupov had a couple of big shots on another power play midway through the frame. This time, though, Sergei Ivanov kept them out and it remained 1-0 at the first intermission.

In the middle frame, we saw another example of the old saying: “If you don’t score on them, they score on you.” An odd-man rush saw Tomas Jurco produce a fine save from Ivanov when a second goal looked likely. Almost immediately, Sochi fashioned a breakaway of its own and tied the game through Igor Shvyryov. A couple of minutes later we were back in front: Yipper deflecting Doyle Somerby’s shot into the net. Judging by the grin on our captain’s face after that play, he may not have known too much about it. But they all count, and you don’t score goals without getting into the right positions.

Sochi tied it up again before the second break, but the third period saw Red Star take the game away. Two goals in 90 seconds put us in charge: Sochi had just about killed a penalty when Foo thumped a shot that cannoned off the boards. Graovac was first to react and had a simple finish into a wide-open net to restore our lead. Then Lockhart struck again, batting home the rebound after Spencer’s shot looped up off the luckless Sochi netminder.

That forced Sochi to try to attack a bit harder, and offered an opportunity for Yakupov to show off his defensive game. All too often our new attacking recruit has faced criticism for a perceived reluctance to do the dirty work, but his recovery to chase down a Sochi counterattack and not only halt Artemy Kuznetsov’s advance but take the puck off his stick and send play back down the ice for another Red Star raid.

Impressive as Yakupov’s contribution was, Foo was the main man in the final frame and he finished the job with four minutes to play. Sochi coughed up the puck on the blue line, Spencer advanced into the danger zone and looked at a pass to his brother, Parker. That was enough to sow doubt in the minds of the defense, opening up a shooting lane for Spencer to rifle home number five.

After seven pre-season games in total, Kunlun finishes with three wins and four losses, but a positive goal differential of 23-20. Now it’s time to head back to Mytishchi and prepare for the real stuff when we travel to Dynamo Moscow for the season opener exactly one week from now.