Red Star returns to winning ways

25 January 2025

Vityaz Moscow Region 1 Kunlun Red Star 2

The playoff dream lives! The Dragons had to dig deep, but a 2-1 success at Vityaz snapped a three-game skid and opened some daylight between ourselves and our closest chaser. More importantly, it eats into Torpedo’s lead in the race for eighth place as the season veers into its decisive phase.

After a run of tough losses, it was time to shuffle the pack a little. Saturday’s game brought debuts for Kyle Rau and Ziyat Paigin, as well as a return to action for on-loan defenseman Alexei Kozhevnikov. Patrik Rybar continued in goal.

Freshening the pack would pay dividends in the end, but it took some time to secure that reward in a tense, hard-fought battle. Both teams were well aware that defeat here would be a serious blow to their respective playoff prospects, and the game unfolded accordingly. Caution was the watchword for much of the play; scoring chances were grudgingly chiselled out rather than flowing from blistering coast-to-coast action.

With the stakes high, so were tempers. It took just 67 seconds for the first penalties of the game, concurrent roughing calls against our Hudson Elynuik and their Yegor Rykov. And the rest of the first period was played under the influence of former Dragon Ruslan Pedan. He started on a positive note, assisting as Ivan Vorobyov opened the scoring for the home team in the seventh minute.

However, Pedan went to the box midway through the first period and the first power play of the game brought a KRS equalizer. The goal went to Jan Drozg, who produced a lovely one-time snipe from between the hash marks off a Danny O’Regan feed. On Friday, Jan saw his goal against Traktor in late November downgraded to an assist on a Rourke Chartier tally; today’s effort – unquestionably Drozg’s – restores him to two goals for Red Star and ends a drought dating back to Dec. 1.

That goal gave our guys a lift and the second period was much more encouraging for our forwards. There was some early assistance from Vityaz when Derek Barach sat for interference. We couldn’t convert that power play, but succeeded in dominating the game in the middle frame. Spencer Foo was closest to putting Kunlun in front with a vicious shot that fizzed off the piping with Andrei Kareyev beaten. Rau, whose brother Chad was such a big player for the Dragons in our inaugural season, also made his presence felt. A robust hit on our old friend Pedan set the tone for an uncompromising performance from our guys.

However, we still needed a goal. The middle frame was scoreless and the third was heading the same way. Elynuik saw a promising opportunity go begging when he fired into Kareyev’s pads off Foo’s feed. And thoughts were turning to overtime when Adam Clendening stepped up to win it in the 56^th minute. Tomas Jurco saw his initial shot saved but hunted down the rebound and recycled the puck to Clendening on the blue line. His shot, from a central position, whipped through traffic to find the net and seal a vital victory.