Dragons dig deep to down Magnitka
27 September 2023
Kunlun Red Star 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 SO
They call it zero quit. Not many gave the Dragons much chance ahead of the visit of high-flying Metallurg. Neither recent form nor the weight of history offered obvious reasons for hope. However, this team has shown more than once over the past year or so that it will not be intimidated by big opponents. Tonight’s game was another memorable Mytishchi moment, with the guys battling back to turn a seemingly lost cause into a glorious victory.
For the start of a long home stand, Matt Jurusik returned in goal. There was also a welcome return to action for Colin Campbell, with Daniil Tarasov missing out tonight. Metallurg decided not to use Artyom Zagidullin in goal against his former club, preferring Ilya Nabokov instead.
The visitor hadn’t much enjoyed its current road trip. In Cherepovets, it blew a big lead to lose to Severstal. Then it suffered another defeat in Yaroslavl. Today, though, Metallurg was handed an immediate boost. Kyle Wood took a penalty in the first minute and Alexander Petunin opened the scoring after 95 seconds.
Although the first period saw our guys limit Magnitka to a handful of shots at Jurusik, the visitor was in clinical mood. Midway through the session, Yegor Korobkin doubled the lead. Gradually, our offense started to stir, and some intelligent link-up work from Ryan Merkley hinted at a way forward. However, this was a slow start to the game, and it left us with work to do.
The second period saw more scoring chances. Unfortunately, most of the better ones went to Metallurg. Juice produced a spectacular full-stretch save to keep the score down, while our best looks came on counterattacks.
It all changed in the last 10 minutes. Metallurg thought it could coast its way to the end, but a power play reinvigorated our efforts. The visitor just about killed that double minor penalty, but as Makar Khabarov returned to the ice, Brandon Yip forced home Red Star’s first goal of the night. Recent signing Anton Shenfeld collected his 200th KHL point with an assist on the play, and we had a lifeline.
Now there was something to believe in, and our forwards set about making that belief into something concrete. Nolan Moyle drew a big save from Ilya Nabokov, then Danila Pavliko went to the box for a wholly unnecessary roughing incident. The PP got into gear, Jack Rodewald steered the puck back to Zac Leslie on the blue line and, with Campbell screening Nabokov, Zac’s shot ripped into the corner of the net to tie the game with 2:40 left to play.
There was still work to do. In overtime we ended up killing another penalty. But those late goals gave our guys momentum and guided us into a shoot-out. Jurusik did his job at one end; at the other Alex Riche and Luke Lockhart found the net to complete a smash-and-grab raid.
Having been in cruise control for so long, the visitor struggled to react. Even a power play in overtime could not give Metallurg the edge. And the shoot-out saw Alex Riche and Luke Lockhart on target for the Dragons to snatch a memorable victory.
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