Tough times in front of goal

23 January 2025

Severstal Cherepovets 3 Kunlun Red Star 0

A frustrating evening in Cherepovets saw the Dragons run into an inspired goaltending performance from Alexander Samoilov. He made 34 saves to deny our forwards and backstop Severstal to a 3-0 win.

Today the Dragons were without Parker Foo. He picked up an injury in the loss to Spartak and could not travel north with the team. His place went to Jan Drozg, while a reshuffle of our attacking options saw Spencer Foo form a new first line alongside Colin Campbell and Yaroslav Likhachyov. Drozg slotted into the third with Luke Lockhart and Danny O’Regan. Patrik Rybar replaced Jeremy Smith in goal.

Rybar found himself the busier of the goalies in the opening frame. Severstal outshot us 14-7 as the new attacking combinations took time to settle. Nonetheless, we got to the intermission without allowing a goal; Patrik’s biggest save denied dangerous youngster Danil Aimurzin after he was played through on our net.

Ironically, that first period was probably the weakest for Red Star in terms of offensive play. However, as we began to pose more of a threat in the second, the goals came at the opposite end. Artyom Shchuchinov put Severstal in front in the 26^th minute, and further tallies late in the frame – including one on a five-on-three power play – took the game away.

Yet there was no shortage of chances for our guys. Even in the first period, Jayden Halbgewachs and Tyler Graovac asked questions of Samoilov. In the second, there were more big moments. Captain Spencer Foo had a golden opportunity on the breakaway, but Samoilov closed the door with the defense straggling far behind the play. Then Drozg got down the right and created a good chance for Luke Lockhart, but he could not steer the puck into the net. By now Foo was engaged in a personal duel with Samoilov, but could not find a way to goal. On another night, you suspect, his close-range redirect off Yaroslav Likhachyov’s feed would have snuck into the net; today, though, the goalie got enough of it to steer the puck across the face of goal and safe.

In the end, for the second game running, we could not get a goal and fell to another loss.

As well as a disappointing result here, there was bad news for the Dragons from Nizhny Novgorod. Torpedo’s victory over Amur means we are now eight points adrift of a playoff spot.