Dragons fall to third-period surge

28 December 2023

Severstal Cherepovets 3 Kunlun Red Star 1

File under ‘tough to take’. Not for the first time this season, the Dragons produced a battling performance only to fall short in the closing stages.

For 40 minutes, our guys had the better of this battle. However, the third period saw Severstal find an extra gear, breaking Red Star hearts with three unanswered goals to claim the ‘W’.

Yesterday’s trade deadline brought a change of personnel at our club. Forward Jack Rodewald moved to Traktor, bringing an end to his season and a half on the team. In that time, Jack was a model pro, and he had 43 point in 96 games for the team. Meanwhile, we’re awaiting a new arrival in the form of defenseman Thomas Schemitsch. The 27-year-old is currently on Spengler Cup duty with Team Canada and will be joining us in the New Year.

In the absence of Rodewald, Austin Wong got a recall to the team and joined up with big brother Tyler on the third line. Jeremy Smith replaced Alexander Lazushin in goal as Viktors Ignatjevs continues his policy of rotating our netminders.

Going into the game, the Dragons knew that this was a great chance to close the gap on the top eight. Severstal is in seventh place, and between us Dinamo Minsk is on a losing streak that continued against high-flying Spartak today. There was much to admire in a determined first-period display, and only the most one-eyed Severstal fan could argue that we were poor value for our opening goal. That arrived after 15 minutes when Luke Lockhart ripped home an exquisite wrist shot, converting a feed from Gemel Smith. That’s a second helper in two games from our new forward, who is settling nicely into his new role.

Smith had a good chance to grab his first goal for Red Star when Colin Campbell set him up early in the second. However, home goalie Dmitry Shugayev denied that opportunity and it remained 1-0. The middle frame saw some gritty defense from our guys – 10 blocked shots and plenty of hard work to neutralize Severstal’s possession. At the other end, we continued to get pucks to the net and despite seeing significantly less of the play, the Dragons led the shot count 13-11 in the session.

Ultimately, though, the pressure was too much. Severstal grabbed a tying goal at the start of the third through Vladimir Grudinin. Four minutes later, in-form Alexander Skorenov gave the home team the lead. Now the balance of play changed. Red Star tried to force the pace, while the Steelmen had to grind their way through and try to run down that clock. In the end, the Dragons ran out of time and good fortune: after Smitty left the game for a final attempt at six-on-five play, the home team got the puck and Mikhail Ilyin’s empty-netter killed off the game with 76 seconds left.

From one steel town to another, the Dragons head to Magnitogorsk for the final game of 2023. Saturday, we face Eastern Conference leader Metallurg looking to snap a four-game skid.