World Cup. North America U23 - Russia - 3:4

The Russian national team played its second match of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey against Team North America U23. Following yesterday’s defeat to Sweden, head coach Oleg Znarok opted to completely shake things up – Vladislav Namestnikov came into the team, Evgeny Kuznetsov joined Artemiy Panarin’s line and Vadim Shipachyov was left out of the line-up. Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Murray were the game’s starting netminders.

Having beaten Finland 4:1 yesterday, the North Americans were full of confidence, and in front of a vocal Canadian crowd, they came flying out of the blocks. Their pressure was rewarded with an early goal – Auston Matthews clinically finished off a breakaway. Just like yesterday, Russia looked nervy and failed to generate much offense inside the opposing zone. Instead, it was the North Americans making all the running, and had it not been for some superb Sergei Bobrovsky saves, the deficit could have been a lot larger.

Our players knew that something had to be done, and they turned up to the party in the second stanza. Vladislav Namestnikov, making his competition debut, got on the end of a juicy rebound and dinked it home to make it a tied game. Nikita Kucherov promptly gave Russia their first lead of the tournament with a clever wrister, and all of a sudden, the match had turned on its head. North America looked stunned, while their opponents were riding on the crest of a wave. Evgeny Kuznetsov made it three after a stunning solo effort, and not long later, Vladimir Tarasenko caught the netminder cold from distance.

Nevertheless, North America weren’t prepared to throw the towel in. They pulled Matt Murray in favour of John Gibson, and that change had the desired effect. Minutes before the break, a tundering Morgan Reilly wrist shot flew over Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove.

That goal set up a nervy third period, and it soon got a whole lot more dramatic. On the powerplay, Ryan Nugent Hopkins stuffed the puck over the line to make it a one goal game with plenty of time remaining. From then on in, Russia turned all thoughts to defence, but we didn’t make life easy for ourselves. Several penalties gave North America the perfect opportunity to lay siege to our net, and Dmitry Orlov’s late tripping foul with 40 seconds on the clock was typical of the ill-discipline.

Luckily, we have Sergei Bobrovsky. Only Sergei knows how he kept the North Americans at bay, and thanks to his heroics, Russia do have their maiden win of the World Cup!

Match protocol:

North America U23- Russia – 3:4 (1:0, 1:4, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Matthews (McDavid, Schiefele), 05.14

1:1 Namestnikov (Telegin, Anisimov), 29.29

1:2 Kucherov (Kulyomin), 30.19

1:3 Kuznetsov (Panarin, Zaitsev), 33.37

1:4 Tarasenko (Datsyuk, Ovechkin), 35.43

2:4 Reilly (Nugent-Hopkins, Gaudreau), 37.56

3:4 Nugent-Hopkins (MacKinnon, Parayko), 43.01

Goalkeepers: Murray/Gibson – Bobrovsky

Shots on target: 46 – 25

Penalty minutes: 16 – 10

Hits: 12 – 18

19.09.2016. Toronto, Canada.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation