The one that got away
31 January 2025
Kunlun Red Star 2 HC Sochi 4
Not every performance gets the result it deserves. At home to Sochi, the Dragons outshot the Leopards 47-16 and dominated play throughout all three periods. However, it seems that Sochi is turning into our bogey team this season. Although Sergei Zubov’s men are struggling at the foot of the Western Conference, this was their third win in four games against our Dragons. It all added up to an unwelcome surprise during the Lunar New Year festivities as we missed a chance to close the gap on eighth-placed Torpedo.
That holiday period inspired a change of attire for the team tonight. In honor of the Year of the Snake, we donned gold-and-red jerseys for the first time. In our Chinese homeland, these are auspicious colors; however, Mytishchi is a long way from China and tonight the fortune cookie crumbled in favor of Sochi and especially visiting goalie, Evgeny Volokhin and forward Igor Shvyryov.
Volokhin had one of those blessed days. In a game that we dominated, he finished with 45 saves. Crucially, in the third period, he stopped 15 shots to preserve a slender one-goal lead. At the other end, with chances always at a premium, we encountered Shvyryov and his one-man mission to disrupt our season. Evidence for that claim? The 26-year-old scored twice tonight, moving to four for the season. Of those four goals, three came against your Dragons. A team could feel victimized!
Initially, things were going nicely. The first period saw our guys on top and Alexander Sharov potted our first goal in gold in the 13th minute, steering the puck home from close range after Adam Clendening’s point shot. At that stage, the shot count was 13-2 in our favor and that told the story of the play.
Although we couldn’t add to our lead in the first period, we had another significant advantage when Andrei Nikonov was ejected from the game for spearing. His major penalty carried over the intermission and promised a productive start for us in the second period.
Instead, though, Shvyryov grabbed a short-handed goal to tie the scores. Then Sochi’s first power play of the night was barely over when Sergei Popov put the visitor ahead. The immediate reaction wasn’t ideal, and a five-on-three power play helped Maxim Fedotov push the lead to 3-1. The Leopards pounced for three goals on six second-period shots, and the damage was done.
Not that the story was in any way over. Doyle Somerby got a goal back in the 32nd minute, capitalizing on a broken play to collect the puck in the deep slot and fire home unmolested for his fourth of the season. That gave almost half a game to turn the scoreline around and, with chances flowing, the assignment felt attainable.
It wasn’t that we failed to understand the assignment. The third period was one-way traffic. A 15-3 shot count, 7:34 on offense against less than a minute. By any rational measure, the next goal could only go one way. But Volokhin saw things differently, making save after save. If the frame started with a sense that a Red Star goal was inevitable, it ended with a feeling that Volokhin stopping the puck was an inescapable natural law. By the time Spencer Foo darted clear of the defense, only to see the visiting goalie make yet another stop, there was a sinking feeling about the final outcome. And Shvyryov – who else – found the empty net to write a melancholy coda to a deeply frustrating evening.
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