Long-awaited win at Avtomobilist

21 November 2024

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Kunlun Red Star 2 SO

Yekaterinburg, it’s been a while. But today’s shoot-out win in the capital of the Urals put an end to a sticky streak in Avtomobilist’s building. This was the Dragons’ first success here since Sep. 1, 2017 – when we won 2-1 in regulation. Our last point came back in 2019’s OT loss. So today’s win was well overdue.

Victory was sealed by Luke Lockhart, who successfully converted his second attempt in a prolonged shoot-out. Earlier, new signing Jan Drozg twice beat Vladimir Galkin, but his feat was matched by Avto’s Brooks Macek. After Lockhart put us up in the shoot-out for a third time, Kyle Keyser saved from Stephane da Costa to secure the win.

It was fitting that Keyser and Lockhart played big roles in the extras. Lockie, as you might expect given his long service for our guys, scored the goal that gave us our last point here, tying that Sep. 2019 game at 4-4. Meanwhile, in today’s game Keyser was excellent from start to finish, stopping 38 shots in regulation and seven more in a one-sided period of overtime that twice saw us on the PK. Beating an in-form team on the road demands exemplary goaltending, and that’s exactly what Kyle gave us tonight.

But don’t be fooled by the stats that suggest a dominant Avtomobilist was defied by a goaltending masterclass. Red Star could have wrapped this one up in regulation. Early in the game, Jayden Halbgewachs will feel he should have done better when he got free at the back door and steered the puck against the post with the goal at his mercy. Our counterattacks caused trouble all night for the Motormen, and Jayden played a big role in the opening goal in the 17^th minute. A turnover in our zone released Spencer Foo and Halbgewachs was the only man who could keep pace with him. The duo exchanged passes, putting Sergei Zborovsky in a spin as the last defenseman, and Spencer advanced on goal to beat Galkin.

The second frame brought more dangerous moments as our offense demonstrated that quality counts for more than quantity when it comes to scoring chances. Ryan Merkley, influential all evening, slalomed through the home D before Galkin said ‘no’. The Halbgewachs-Foo combination almost brought Spencer his second of the game, and Tyler Graovac set up a great opportunity for Stepan Zvyagin to claim his first KHL goal. The only surprise after a period of exhilarating, wide-open hockey, was that there was still only one goal in it after 40 minutes.

In the third, the guys tried to protect that slender lead. Now things were tense and scoring chances were hard to come by. It took Avtomobilist 57 minutes to solve Keyser, but just when the shut-out seemed to be on, da Costa claimed a heart-breaking equalizer after great work from Nick Merkley (no relation to Ryan).

Our problems continued when Hudson Elynuik was whistled for interference in the last minute: our PK closed out the game, but then had to start overtime playing three-on-four. Later in the extras our Merkley found himself in the box for the last 77 seconds, but before that he was so close to winning it with a long range shot off the crossbar that had Galkin grasping at thin air.

That was as close as anyone came to winning it in OT and Red Star’s first shoot-out of the season ended successfully. After seven years, our guys could once again take the chequered flag against the Motormen.