Pautov’s first goal and Merkley magic help Dragons conjure road win

15 September 2024

Amur Khabarovsk 2 Kunlun Red Star 3

The river Amur forms the boundary between our adopted home in Russia and our native land in China. So this Black Dragon River derby always carries a little extra spice, especially when it’s the closest we’ll get to playing at home.

And proximity to China helped our guys take a hard-fought 3-2 win, spoiling the Tigers’ home opener. In an entertaining contest, Amur twice battled back to tie the game. But there was no answer to Jake Chelios’ 55^th minute goal.

Red Star’s roster for Sunday’s game featured a debut for Alexei Kozhevnikov. The 22-year-old defenseman joins us on loan from Lokomotiv, where he has played 38 KHL games, scoring 3 (1+2) points and returning a +6 rating. He lined up alongside Kyle Wood on our third defensive pair.

There was also a return to action for Brandon Yip and Tyler Wong – and they wasted no time in making their presence felt. Inside three minutes they combined for the opening goal. It was pretty much our first venture into Amur territory and it saw Tyler take the puck behind the net before feeding Yury Pautov. The defenseman drilled it across the face of goal, where Yip held off the attentions of a D-man and a goalie to let the puck fly into the net. First attack, first shot, first goal – and the first of this season at Amur’s Platinum Arena.

There were more good things in that opening frame: Tomas Jurco showed great hands and a beautiful toe-drag to cut open the Amur defense, only for his pass to Luke Lockhart, wide open on the slot, to be scrambled away at the last. At the other end, Jeremy Smith had a big save to deny Arnaud Durandeau after the Canadian forward carved a swathe through our defenses.

Smitty was somewhat unfortunate to be beaten late in the opening frame when Yefim Gurkin’s point shot came through heavy traffic and possibly took a deflection off a defenseman on its way into the net. Our bench challenged the play, believing that Gurkin allowed Mishchenko’s pass to cross into center ice before shooting, but the review showed no offside.

That left us with a delay of game penalty to kill, but not for long. Our old friend Devin Brosseau clearly didn’t want his former colleagues at a disadvantage and evened up the numbers with a spot of interference just seven seconds later.

There was no scoring in the second period, although Yip had a great early chance for his second of the game. Our captain got free on the doorstep and Lockhart’s pass picked him out, but Igor Bobkov produced a great save to keep the scores level. Both goalies did well in the middle frame and both scoreline and stats were even at the second intermission.

It felt like it would take something special to break the deadlock, and Ryan Merkley provided precisely that at the start of the third. He picked up the puck in our zone and embarked on a coast-to-coast rush that took him pass four opponents before getting his shot away. And this was no exercise in pure pace; Ryan relied on control and stick handling to embarrass the home defense. Bobkov got something on the initial shot, and Tyler Graovac was there to stuff home the rebound – but our forward would surely agree that the play was all about Merkley.

Unfortunately, we never got a chance to consolidate that lead. Barely 30 seconds later, Amur drew level on a goal from Alex Galchenyuk. But the Dragons would not be denied. In the 55^th minute, Jake Chelios put us up for the third time in the game. Wong collected his second assist of the day after some good work in the corner before sending the puck back to Adam Clendening at the point. Adam spotted Chelios moving to the top of the left-hand circle and picked him out with a pass that invited Jake to fire off a quick wrister that fizzed past Cam Lee’s attempted block and beat Bobkov.

That wasn’t quite the end of the drama: in the 58^th minute, an Amur shot hit the post and an over-enthusiastic DJ triggered the home goal horn. The celebration was premature, the puck didn’t go in and there was no goal. In the final minute, the Tigers called Bobkov to the bench and tried to whip up one last surge. But the Dragons held on to take the win at the start of our Far East tour.