4 September 2024
Dynamo Moscow 1 Kunlun Red Star 3
After an encouraging summer, it was down to business at last. And a trip to last term’s regular-season table-topper was a great way to get a feel for where the Dragons’ class of 2024/25 fits in. We knew it would be a tough test against one of the most dangerous offenses in the KHL. But we also understood it was a fine chance to show that this season the Dragons are ready to roar.
For his first game as our head coach, Mikhail Kravets sent out a first line with ample KRS experience: the Foo brothers, centered by Colin Campbell. With Brandon Yip missing out, Spencer Foo wore the ‘C’ for this one. But there were plenty of new faces as well: the second line saw Rourke Chartier centering for Chris Wilkie and Tomas Jurco, Nail Yakupov, Jayden Halbgewachs, Hudson Elynuik and our latest addition Nikita Sinyatkin all featured on offense. At the back, we handed competitive debuts to Adam Klendening, Ian McCoshen and Martin Lebebvre on a six-man D unit. Jeremy Smith got the first start of the season in goal.
Our guys wasted no time making their presence felt. In the early shifts, Elynuik delivered a resounding – but clean – hit on Brennan Menell. Home goalie Hunter Miska, making his Dynamo debut, was the busier of the goalies for much of the opening frame and we had some joy when opening shooting lanes in the left-hand channel. Even the much-vaunted Blue-and-White power play, which ran at 25% last season, came up blank: not only did the first penalty of game bring no goal, it didn’t even muster a shot at Smitty.
So, after all that great work, it was hugely frustrating to be caught by Nikita Gusev 12 seconds from the intermission. Red Star deserved to go the break at least level, but Gusev is one of those master players who cannot be left unguarded for a second.
In the second period, the guys went out and put it right. You remember that all-powerful Dynamo PP? Glad someone does. After its first-period failure, it managed to be slightly worse in the second and Campbell cashed in with a shorty. Parker Foo was the architect, galloping down the left wing on the breakaway. He fired the puck into Miska’s pads, and Campbell was there for the rebound.
And there was more to come. Nail Yakupov, one of the most enigmatic talents to come out of Russian hockey in the past decade or so, marked his Red Star debut with a great goal. Twice, he robbed a Dynamo player of…
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