B-Mac is back

6 January 2024

Dynamo Moscow 7 Kunlun Red Star 1

This one is probably a day best locked away and forgotten about. Defeat against a team riding high at the top of the standings is one thing, but the third-period collapse that saw a potentially competitive performance dissolve into a painfully lopsided loss is quite another.

For 40 minutes, though, the Dragons hung in this game. Our guys created the first big chance of the afternoon when Doyle Somerby robbed Nikita Gusev of the puck and set up Nolan Moyle. However, Moyle couldn’t beat Maxim Motorygin in the Dynamo net.

That was a rare bright spot in the first period. Dynamo’s offense, held goalless in its previous two games, had a point to prove. A swirl of Blue-and-White whipped around Jeremy Smith’s goal, firing in 22 shots in the first period alone. Smitty is used to that kind of workload and, not for the first time, kept stopping pucks. But nobody is infallible, and the home team secured a 2-0 lead at the intermission on tallies from Cedric Paquette and Brennan Menell (PP). None of that went down too well with Turner Ottenbreit, and he vented his frustration on Dynamo’s Vladislav Mikhailov in a 14^th-minute fight that saw both players issued major penalties.

The second period was somewhat tighter. Dynamo still had the bulk of the possession and a commanding advantage on the shot count. This time, though, our defense ensured there were fewer clear chances for the home team and the Muscovites could not add to their tally. Better still, late in the frame we pulled one back: a Jake Chelios shot was blocked into the path of Brandon McMillan who was back in the lineup after missing three games through injury. He celebrated his return with the sixth goal of the season thanks to an instinctive one-timer too quick for everyone: Motorygin could only trap the puck against the inside of the net, where the officials initially failed to see it was well over the line. A video check confirmed what Mac knew all along – good goal, 1-2 on the scoreboard and the game back to life in the 35^th minute.

Going into the third, although the balance of play strongly favored Dynamo, the scoreline gave us a real chance. Whoever scored the next goal would go a long way towards shaping the destiny of the game. Unfortunately, it was Gusev’s quick release that caught Smitty by surprise and restored a two-goal cushion for the home team. A power play goal from Jordan Weal took the game away and after that it was a question of conserving some strength ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with CSKA. The home team notched three more in the closing minutes, including a second of the game for Gusev, but that was more about an offense flexing against an opponent that had moved on to the next challenge. Best to put this behind us and look to improve as soon as possible – and the quick turnaround can only help with that.