Jurusik’s heroics not enough

16 January 2024

Dinamo Minsk 5 Kunlun Red Star 1

Despite some heroics from Matt Jurusik, the Dragons fell to defeat in the first of our double header in Minsk. For two periods, we were in this game, but it all went wrong in the third.

Red Star made a fairly bright start, and Parker Foo had a couple of decent chances in one shift early in the game. However, Dinamo began to assert itself and Jurusik was soon called upon for some big saves. Admittedly, one of them was a case of getting himself out of jail: our goalie’s misplaced clearance behind the net went straight to a home forward. However, Juice rushed back into position in time to denied Daniil Sotishvili’s point blank shot and rob Minsk of what seemed a certain goal.

However, the first power play of the night saw the home team get in front. Sam Anas was the scorer, and that was a name we would get tired of hearing by the end of the evening.

Down by one, Kunlun kept battling. A reward came late in the frame with the teams playing four-on-four hockey. Kyle Wood took advantage of the extra space to step up and join the attack. He exchanged passes with Brandon Yip and swept in a shot from the top of the left-hand circle. After tying the game, the Dragons might even have grabbed a lead before the intermission. There were odd-man chances for Cory Kane and Brandon McMillan, but goalie Alexei Kolosov kept Dinamo level.

The second period saw Jurusik at his best. Dinamo piled on the pressure, with 20 shots in the frame. Matt stopped 19 of them, including a penalty shot from Anas and when he was beaten, our bench quickly alerted the officials to an infringement that impeded our goalie’s efforts to make the save. The review saw the play whistled off and the scores remained level. It should have stayed that way until the intermission, but in the last minute of the session, Sotishvili’s short-handed goal gave the home team the lead.

That was a bitter blow and probably still played on the guys’ minds a little at the start of the third. The rest of the power play came to nothing and at equal strength Dinamo quickly made it 3-1 thanks to young Daniil Lipsky. That deficit was too much, and the rest of the game saw Anas score twice more. His hat-trick was assisted by three helpers from Tanner Fritz, a December addition to the Minsk ranks.

There’s a chance for instant revenge when the teams play again tomorrow, and it’s worth keeping in mind that after a 0-4 loss at home to Minsk the Dragons came here and won in a shoot-out after trailing 1-3. So Wednesday’s game cannot be considered any kind of foregone conclusion, despite the disappointment tonight.