Dragons fall short in Dinamo battle

26 September 2024

Kunlun Red Star 1 Dinamo Minsk 3

Nail Yakupov’s fifth goal of the season was the highlight of the evening for the Dragons. Our leading goalscorer struck at the start of the second period to tie Thursday’s game with Dinamo Minsk, but that wasn’t enough to escape another defeat.

After Tuesday’s loss against Torpedo, the Dragons switched things up a bit. Among the changes, Kyle Keyser was named on a gameday roster for the first time in the KHL, listed as back-up to Jeremy Smith. On offense, Brandon Yip came in for Jayden Halbgewachs, while Chris Wilkie was also rested. Kyle Wood took over from Martin Lefebvre on defense and Alexei Kozhevnikov came into the team as a seventh D.

The game began with both teams picking up penalties. In the first couple of minutes, two players from each team ended up in the box, although nobody enjoyed a meaningful power play since no sooner did one side get a man advantage then another foul would even out the numbers.

Eventually things settled down a little and we began to see some chances. Yip’s redirect from Ryan Merkley’s shot tested Andrei Tikhomirov in the Dinamo net, while at the other end Vadim Shipachyov failed to control the puck when well placed to score. Later, Rourke Chartier went close on an odd-man rush and Smith spread himself well to deny Andrei Stas after the visiting captain got free at the back door.

The opening goal came late in the first period, and it went to Dinamo. The Bison got their first genuine power play of the night and Vitaly Pinchuk took advantage to make it 0-1 at the first intermission.

Red Star was a little unfortunate to be down at the break but wasted little time in putting things right at the start of the second. Our very own fire-breathing Dragon, Nail Yakupov, potted his fifth of the season to tie the game on 20:23. Ian McCoshen brought the play into the Minsk zone, dished off the puck for Nailer and his mighty one-timer flicked off a defenseman’s skate and flew through Tikhomirov’s five hole.

On another day, that might have swung the momentum into our favor. Today, though, things didn’t quite go to plan. Vadim Moroz and Roman Gorbunov scored a couple of quick goals to open a 3-1 lead by the midway stage.

That proved to be the end of the scoring. Dinamo set about protecting its lead and, for all our guys’ efforts, there was no way back. For much of the third period we struggled to get shots at Tikhomirov and it wasn’t until a last, desperate surge that the Dragons managed to generate some pressure around the visitor’s net. When Shipachyov went to the box with 28 seconds left, it offered a glimmer of hope. However, there was insufficient time to make a serious effort to save the game and Red Star suffered a fourth consecutive loss.

The team is back in action on Sunday away to SKA.