And this is borne out in the books, but even after the Pact fleets are gone, they were still able to destroy Nato's remaining naval forces off the coast of Norway.
How did they manage that? Probably by using all those recommissioned and new ships they had on the go because of the Chinese war. They were able to use their greater than IRL navy to decimate the western forces before the final decisive encounter in June 1997. After that date you're left with both sides able to field little more than individual ships here and there all suffering heavy battle damage which post November simply cannot be repaired fully.
In the period between June and November I see every last ship able to move under it's own power being needed at sea, even if damaged, to escort supply convoys across the Atlantic - there's simply no choice but to keep them out and active as there's just no other ships still floating.
As was shown by the German U-Boats in WWII, it doesn't take much to inflict catastrophic losses on unescorted civilian freighters, which is one of the big reasons why western navies are so strong compared to their expected cold war adversaries.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.
Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"
Mors ante pudorem
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