Chartier scores but Sailors take revenge

17 September 2024

Admiral Vladivostok 7 Kunlun Red Star 1

It doesn’t always go to plan, and the Dragons’ trip to Vladivostok left us all at sea. We’d already played Admiral once this season, edging a 5-4 overtime win in Mytishchi in our home opener. There were times in that game where we got a warning of the Sailors’ scoring power, and today we saw rather too much of Admiral’s attacking potential.

Mikhail Kravets named an unchanged team following Sunday’s 3-2 win at Amur. It’s the first time this season that the Dragons have gone with the exact same roster two games in a row, but unfortunately we did not reap the benefits of a settled line-up.

Admiral made a blistering start to its home opener, scoring twice in the first six minutes. The writing was on the walls as early as the first minute when Brandon Yip was called for a trip. Our PK jumped into action, and Jeremy Smith made a big diving save to snuff out a chance for Pavel Shen and Stepan Starkov. However, Smitty’s luck was out on the opener as a weird bounce presented Yegor Petukhov with a simple chance. Petukhov potted a hat-trick in our previous game. A minute or so later, Libor Sulak doubled the lead.

That prompted Kravets to call a time-out and calm things down. The head coach’s words had some effect: defensively, the guys tightened up impressively and gradually we began to pose more of an attacking threat. Pressure brought penalties, and a five-on-three power play saw Rourke Chartier get us back into the game. Danny O’Regan had a assist on the play for his first point in the KHL.

Back to a one-goal game, the Dragons had hope of continuing the fightback. Certainly, our play after that rough opening was competitive and there was plenty of time to turn things around. However, it didn’t work out like that. The second period, like the first, began with Admiral scoring. Sulak potted his second of the game, this time with our old friend Jack Rodewald among the assists. Our guys looked for a way back, but as time went by the strain of the long journey out east began to take its toll. In the final few minutes of the frame, Admiral potted two quick goals to open a 5-1 lead.

It’s worth noting that while our host also faced a flight from Moscow to the Far East for this game, Admiral’s previous action came at CSKA on Sep. 8. Since then, Red Star played two more games and had all the extra travel of getting to Vladivostok via Khabarovsk. With extra prep time, the Sailors looked sharper going into the third period.

Konstantin Volkov took over in our net for that final stanza, but could do little to stop another goal early in the frame. This time Rodewald was on the scoresheet. With the game long gone, Stepan Starkov added another on the power play to pile on the pain.

There’s not much time to dwell on what went wrong. The Far East road trip continues and we’re on the way to Novosibirsk, where we face Sibir on Thursday. The quick turnaround offers an opportunity to put this loss behind us and get back to showing what we can do.