It all happened so quickly for HC Sochi in their loss to the bottom-placed KHL Western Conference team Vityaz Moscow Region on Monday, November 13th. While they had a respectable advantage in terms of possession and puck control in the first period (represented by the 18-13 and 15-7 advantages in SOG and faceoffs won, respectively), they did not translate that into goals. The game remained scoreless until just 32 seconds into the second period, when F Ivan Vorobyov found the back of the net for Vityaz for his first ever KHL goal. Sochi would respond with RW Matvei Michkov (PHI, 7th overall, 2023) setting up C Marat Khusnutdinov for a simple tap-in goal to tie it up (with LW Artur Tyanulin getting credit for the secondary helper) three minutes and twenty seconds later. Sochi RW Daniil Avershin would tally his first point of the year by scoring the next goal with just under five minutes remaining in the period, with the assist going to Daniil Seroukh (his first apple of the season). This was when it began to spiral out of control. C Vladimir Galuzin would be sent to the box after an egregious hit on Michkov, assessed two minor penalties for boarding and roughing for getting into a tussle with Tyanulin as the lattermost came to Michkov’s defense. Over the course of 35 seconds, Vityaz would score two short-handed goals (once on the 4-on-3, then again on the 5-on-4). There were chances for this not to be the determining sequence of events, as there was plenty of aggression in the offensive zone in the third period from Sochi, particularly during another power play early into the third. They would have a handful of good looks and chances during the final stanza (including the latest of several Michigan goal attempts by Michkov this year), but alas, Sochi would come away with the regulation loss 3-2 at home against a team they had an excellent opportunity to beat, continuing their losing streak.

Sochi out-shot Vityaz 38 to 29 and crushed them at the draw, 37 to 16. However, it seems as though their spacing, positioning, and bad finishing (including and especially on the power play – Note that the second short-handed goal which ended up being the GWG was on a counter-attack) in the offensive zone caused them to prevent themselves from scoring more and putting the game way out of reach, with not only a lot of chances resulting in near-misses (or “near-hits”, as George Carlin would say), but Sochi denying themselves a chance at even more good looks. Truth be told, they could run back a lot of what they did in this game in tomorrow’s rematch and get the W. Bench boss Dmitry Kokorev simply needs to stress the fundamentals and better/more effective net-front presence to his group. That said, there will be a sense of disappointment that this team entered this game (and remain) four points back of Severstal Cherepovets for the last playoff spot in the West and missed the opportunity to get four should have been easy points. Perhaps a convincing win tomorrow will give them confidence going forward. We shall see what happens.