Broz scores his 19th but Dynamo has too much for Dragons

25 January 2024

Kunlun Red Star 1 Dynamo Moscow 5

After a battling loss at SKA last week, the Dragons made a couple of changes. Captain Brandon Yip returned to the team, along with Alex Riche. Brandon McMillan and Austin Wong made way for them. Matt Jurusik got the starting role between the piping.

Dynamo, humbled at home to Spartak in its most recent game, was in no mood for further difficulties. Our guest made a fast start to the game, with Jurusik forced into a couple of big saves early on. Gradually, though, the Dragons began to ask some questions of their own. A great feed from Devin Brosseau invited Tyler Wong to shoot from the doorstep, but Ilya Konovalov made the save. Later, Tyler Graovac had a decent look but his shot from the hash marks was charged down.

At the other end, Dynamo kept pressing and got in front late in the opening frame. Eric O’Dell went behind the net to set up Dmitry Rashevsky on the slot and the forward fired home to separate the teams at the first intermission.

After the break, the Blue-and-Whites soon increased their lead through Yegor Martynov. After that, Red Star played some nice stuff: the Foo brothers conjured a good chance on the rush, Alex Riche sent Cory Kane through for another shot that Konovalov dealt with. There were spells when the Dragons managed to keep hold of the puck and enjoy some territorial advantage. However, despite getting closer to a goal, our guys could not reduce the deficit before the second break.

Early in the third period the game saw its first power play – and the Dragons took advantage to get back in the contest. Jordan Weal sat for holding, Kunlun went on the offensive and when Wong burst out from behind the net, his feed was a perfect set up for Brosseau to score his 19^th goal of the season at the back door.

Unfortunately, Dynamo got back to full strength and restored its two-goal advantage almost immediately. In a role reversal from the opening goal, Rashevsky set up O’Dell to make it 3-1.

In the 53^rd minute, Red Star got another power play chance. This time Jurusik went to the bench and we played six-on-four as Brennan Menell sat in the box. Luke Lockhart went close from the left-hand circle, but Dynamo regained possession and Weal grabbed an empty-net goal to put the game out of our reach. Deflated, our guys allowed one more in the closing stages as Pavel Kudryavtsev completed the scoring.

After losing out against on the Western Conference’s top teams, our next games take us to Sochi. The Leopards are looking to escape the basement, but back-to-back games beside the Black Sea give us a great chance to lock them down there.

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