Brosseau matches club record
17 February 2024
Kunlun Red Star 2 Dinamo Minsk 4
Devin Brosseau equalled a club record with his 21st goal of the season. That matches Brandon Yip’s mark for the best goal return in a regular season for the Dragons. Yipper has reached 21 on two occasions, while Devin still has time to claim the record for himself in the final week of the campaign.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to save Red Star from defeat at home to Dinamo. During the week, the Belarusians ended our playoff hopes; today they dealt a blow to our bid to finish in ninth place ahead of Sochi. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that our 50 points this season is the best return for the club in four years. Progress might not always be as fast as we’d like, but even slow motion is better than no motion.
For the visit of Dinamo, we replaced one ex-Minsk forward with another. Teemu Pulkkinen came into the line-up in place of Gemel Smith. Pulkkinen slotted into the second line alongside Colin Campbell and Brandon McMillan. Jeremy Smith got the start in goal, with Matt Jurusik as back-up.
The first big chance went to the Dragons, but as the net opened for Brosseau he fired his shot wide of the target. Gradually, Dinamo came into the game, and Smitty pulled off a big save to deny Brett Richie a first KHL goal following his arrival in Belarus. However, the first power play of the game proved costly. Nikita Parfenyuk sat for tripping and Dinamo took the momentum. Technically, the teams were back to equal strength by the time Vyacheslav Osnovin opened the scoring for our visitor; in practice, the door to the box was barely open before the puck hit the net.
Undaunted, Kunlun continued to push. Brandon Yip forced a great save from Dylan Ferguson when the puck broke for him in front of the Dinamo net, then Tyler Graovac – another former Dinamo player – dinged the piping as the opening frame came to an end.
The second period saw two flurries of intense, compressed action. The Dragons looked to build on a promising end to the opening frame, but got caught out by a Pavel Denisov goal in the 27th minute. However, it took barely 30 seconds for Brosseau to tie that scoring record. The goal owed much to Luke Lockhart, who sold a shot to Ferguson and tied the goalie to his near post before slipping a pass to the back door for Devin to score into a gaping target.
That was two goals in 31 seconds; later in the frame we saw two big incidents in 57 seconds. First, Vitaly Pinchuk’s solo rush was illegally halted by Merkley. Danil Sotishvili stepped up to take the penalty shot, but could not beat Smith. Within a minute, the game was tied. Yip’s cross-ice feed picked out Graovac, who fired home his fourth goal in five games.
However, this game would be decided by special teams. Red Star had a great chance early in the third when Dmitry Korobov went to the box. On the power play, Brosseau found himself well placed on the slot but, with a record-breaking go-ahead goal in his sights he put his effort wide. Dinamo’s next power play proved decisive: in form Alexander Volkov converted the opportunity to restore the visitor’s lead.
There was no further good news for the Dragons. With six to play, Pinchuk collided with Smith and our goalie had to leave the game. Jurusik came in for the closing stages, but was already off the ice when Kodie Curran’s empty-netter wrapped up the win for Dinamo.
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