The Russian under 17 national team are preparing for the quarter-final

The under 17 Russian national team are continuing to prepare for the World Challenge Cup quarter-final against the Czech Republic in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.

Yegor Sokolov, Russia under 17 national team forward:

- After not scoring on the powerplay against Canada, we have been working over this aspect in training. It's hard to say what exactly went wrong in that game, maybe the opponents were more aggressive than us. We had chances, but we had to take advantage of them. As usual, when not playing that well, Canada like to play rough and keep the puck. They don't like to play in defence. Given that some of our players were ill, this day's rest has given us valuable time to recover. We will be ready to face the Czech Republic. Beforehand, we have won four out of five matches against this team. Nevertheless, we have seen their training, only four on five players are the same. They won their last game 8:2, it will be tough for us. We will analyse them and get prepared.

Nikita Okhotyuk, Russia under 17 national team defenseman:

- We're in a great mood before playing the Czech Republic. Maybe it's for the best that we lost the last game, you can't win them all. A lot of work has been done with our special teams, but against Canada, we knew that it was going to be a serious match. We conceded a goal when on a powerplay of our own. It's not important who we will play with in the quarter-final, the Czechs have a good team. We will look at the video and analyse their tactics. A lot of our players have had time to recover after falling ill with a virus.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation