Powerful third period comes up short
6 February 2025
Kunlun Red Star 1 Dynamo Moscow 4
The final scoreline flattered Dynamo. While the visitor impressed in the first period, Red Star rallied strongly. The final frame was one-way traffic, but goaltending heroics limited us to a solitary Colin Campbell marker. Then, in the final minutes, a largely silent Blue-and-White attack padded its lead with a couple of empty net goals, giving the result a lopsided feel.
After a narrow loss to Avtomobilist in the previous game, Mikhail Kravets made just two changes to the personnel. Jayden Halbgewachs returned, joining Tyler Graovac and Yaroslav Likhachyov on the second line. The meant Stepan Zvyagin was the 13th forward. Jeremy Smith replaced Patrik Rybar as starting goalie. However, there was also a change in the lines, with the Drozg-Campbell-Foo combination taking over as the first line.
Unfortunately, this game got away from us at the start. An error in our defense presented Dynamo with the opening goal in the sixth minute. It was a similar story midway through the session when another glitch presented Nikita Gusev with his first of the night.
As the session went on, things improved. There were some good looks in the closing stages of the first period, most notably when Luke Lockhart rang the iron, but by the intermission we were still down by two.
The second period saw more from our offense. Colin Campbell had a chance of a short-handed goal but put his shot wide of Maxim Motorygin’s net. Then a great pass from Martin Lefebvre split the Dynamo defense. Danny O’Regan picked it up on the blue line and bore down on goal, but Motorygin closed the door on him. O’Regan came closer still when some great play from Kyle Rau set him up at the back door. This time, Motorygin was beaten but the shot found the side netting.
By now, a pattern was emerging and in the third period, it intensified. The Dragons attacked, time and again, but Motorygin kept finding the answers. In the final frame, this got to absurd proportions. We had 17 shots and held Dynamo to just three. Yet, a combination of fine goaltending and wayward finishing meant we got just one goal for our efforts.
Halbgewachs had a couple of big chances early in the session but couldn’t find the back of the net. Nonetheless, the pressure was building on Dynamo and when Campbell got us on the board midway through the frame, the game was absolutely back on. Colin got the vital touch on Yury Pautov’s point shot, taking the puck away from Motorygin and making it a one-goal game.
Given the Dragons’ domination of the third period, there was every reason to hope that the next 10 minutes would see the fightback continue and the game go, at the very least, into overtime.
However, it wasn’t to be. Although Dynamo had just three shots on goal in the final frame, two of them came after Smitty had gone to the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Shots at empty nets tend to go in, and both Gusev and Max Comtois proved that point to give the final score a flattering look for the visitor.
After a busy schedule, the guys now have a short break over the All-Star Weekend. That gives a chance to watch Smitty representing the Dragons at the showcase in Novosibirsk and prepare for the resumption of our home stand on Tuesday when we entertain Salavat Yulaev and look to snap this skid.
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