Slow start hurts Dragons

24 September 2024

Kunlun Red Star 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 4

The Dragons struggled to cope with a fast start from Torpedo. However, after a difficult opening nine minutes our guys regrouped to make a game of it on our return to home ice.

After a gruelling road trip, it was back to Mytishchi to take on Torpedo. Mikhail Kravets made three changes to the team that lost at Sibir, giving Konstantin Volkov the start in goal and returning Jayden Halbgewachs and Martin Lebefvre to the line-up. Brandon Yip and Alexei Kozhevnikov were rested

With Torpedo losing its previous four games, the Dragons took to the ice in optimistic mood. Unfortunately, those high spirits didn’t last. This game started to go wrong early. It took just 58 seconds for Torpedo to open the scoring and the visitor’s counterattacking style continued to get results. Inside nine minutes, the Dragons were down 0-3 and Mikhail Kravets opted to replace Volkov with Jeremy Smith.

That stopped Torpedo’s goal rush, but didn’t do much to dim the frustrations on the team. Austin Wong was especially determined to make things happen. In the 17^th minute, he threw himself into a hit on Slava Voynov and, while the visiting defenseman was on the ice, Wong got into a fight with Maxim Letunov and put him on the floor as well. It didn’t have an immediate impact on the scoring, but it injected some much-needed energy into the team.

The middle frame brought some progress for Red Star. After Smith pulled off a big pad save to deny Mikhail Abramov a second of the night, our guys began to generate more sustained offense. Torpedo didn’t much like that and began to pick up penalties, which invited more pressure on Ivan Kulbakov’s net. There were chances there, but our guys could not find the finishing touch that might get us back in the game.

That breakthrough finally arrived early in the third: Kulbakov took a tripping penalty and Luke Lockhart converted the power play. He got himself on the slot and was perfectly placed to put away the rebound after Tomas Jurco fired the puck to the danger zone and Rourke Chartier’s attempt was blocked.

The third period brought plenty of hard work as our guys looked to grasp that lifeline. However, Torpedo’s defense was resolute and in the end it was clear that our slow start left us with too much to do. There was still time for a final flurry of action: Bobby Lynch scored a fourth for the visitor on the power play, but Spencer Foo had the final word in the last minute, rifling home a shot from the top of the right-hand circle of Lockhart’s face-off win.

After a rest day tomorrow, the guys are back in action against Dinamo Minsk on Thursday.