Two breeds of Leopard, one stampede of Bison

12 November 2024

The coming week’s games are something of a mixed bag. There’s a tough trip to in-form Ak Bars on Wednesday, then a basement battle beside the Black Sea on Friday. It’s back home on Sunday afternoon to take on Dinamo Minsk and the KHL’s all-time top scorer – but also to test ourselves against another unpredictable opponent in the race for a playoff spot.

Ak Bars (a), Nov. 13, 1930 Moscow Time

Last season: After an early 1-5 loss in Kazan, Red Star retaliated in November with victory on home ice. Jeremy Smith made 29 saves to blank Ak Bars, as Brandon McMillan potted the only goal of the game.

Familiar faces: None

Setting the scene: This season represents a new era for Ak Bars. Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, coaching legend and local hero, stepped down at the end of last season and – unlike his previous absences from behind the bench, this time it looks like he’s finally retired. Which brought Anvar Gatiyatulin to the club. The former Traktor head coach faces an unenviable task: many clubs, in many sports, have struggled following the departure of a long-serving and triumphant figure from the helm. A 3-5 loss to Salavat Yulaev in his first game did not bode well, and there were question marks after a run of four losses in five games early in October.

Since then, though, the team has been in powerful form. In the last eight games, the Snow Leopards suffered just two losses, both against runaway leader Lokomotiv and one of those in a shoot-out. That’s lifted the team to third in the East, while the attacking partnership of captain Dmitrij Jaskin and summer signing Alexander Barabanov is blossoming into a potent weapon. This promises to be a testing examination for the Dragons, who will need to channel all of the excellence shown in our recent wins over SKA to bring anything back from Tatarstan.

HC Sochi (a), Nov. 15, 1930 Moscow Time

Last time out: The first of our six meetings with Sochi this season did not go well. After a 0-4 loss on home ice, our guys will be looking for revenge from a trip to the Black Sea resort.

Familiar faces: Defenseman Yury Pautov began his KHL career at Sochi in 2014/15, and returned for a second spell in 2021/22.

Setting the scene: This is a basement battle in the Western Conference. Victory here in regulation would lift the Dragons off the foot of the table, but it’s hard to predict what kind of performance Sergei Zubov’s team will offer.

In recent weeks there were signs that the Leopards had turned a corner. Back-to-back wins at SKA (5-2) and Vityaz (3-1) should have injected the team with belief despite a rough start to the season. After captain Artur Tyanulin was left to bear the scoring load by himself for too long, reinforcements arrived. Timur Khafizov picked up a couple in Petersburg, Denis Vengryzhanovsky potted two to sink Vityaz. But all that progress was thrown into doubt in Nizhny Novgorod on Monday. A 1-7 hammering at the hands of an out-of-form Torpedo was a big setback. More alarming, after a competitive first period, Sochi seemed to raise the white flag at 1-4 and barely threatened a shot on goal, never mind a fightback. The only positive was 20-year-old goalie Nikita Tulinov coming into the game midway through the third and doing well to keep the score down. Can Kunlun hand out some further punishment as Sochi returns to home ice?

Dinamo Minsk (h), Nov. 17, 1700 Moscow Time

Last time out: Nail Yakupov’s fifth goal of the season couldn’t save the Dragons from a 1-3 loss when the teams met in late September.

Familiar faces: Our recent loan signing Stepan Zvyagin joins us from Dinamo. The 20-year-old made his KRS debut against Spartak last week, having previously made 25 KHL appearances for Minsk. Additionally, Tyler Graovac began his KHL career with the Bison, with 27 points in 48 games in 2021/22.

Setting the scene: Since we last met, Dinamo forward Vadim Shipachyov has moved clear of Sergei Mozyakin to be the KHL’s all-time leading scorer. Shipachyov, a two-time Gagarin Cup winner, now has 929 career points. Of those, 22 points came in 17 games against the Dragons. However, the 37-year-old hasn’t exactly been lighting it up in Belarus this season with nine points in 22 games falling short of his usual scoring standards.

In recent games – and Dinamo has three wins from its last four – the likes of Vitaly Pinchuk and Daniil Sotishvili have led the Belarusians in scoring. It’s likely to be those two, plus leading import Sam Anas, who will pose the biggest threat to us on Sunday.