Reaction after losing in the final of the 2020 World Junior Championship

Valery Bragin, Amir Miftakhov and Yegor Sokolov all spoke to the media after losing to Canada in the final of the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.

Head coach Valery Bragin:

- We haven't had a team like this for a long time which always plays on the front foot. Hopefully, this will continue. Canada played out from defence during the entire game, we expected this to happen. However, when we were leading 3:1, we had to see the match out. The main thing is that we displayed high-quality ice hockey. Sometimes, you need to focus on defence more, it was an exciting match before all of our players like competing in an attacking manner. We will continue playing this way.

Goalkeeper Amif Miftakhov:

- This was the best time of my life. Yesterday, the same thing happened against Sweden, but we managed to eventually emerge victorious. The Canadians were more lucky than us. I couldn't believe it when the buzzer sounded, I was sure that we were going to equalise, all of us really wanted to win. All of us in this team are brothers now, and I thank them for this competition.

Forward Yegor Sokolov:

- It's hard to say anything now, the tournament is over. We have silver medals, whereas Canada have gold ones. I would like to thank everyone in our team, it was a fantastic time and I love every one of them. It was an honour to play with these guys. We did everything we could. The late penalty? It was very disappointing. We fought as hard as we could, I don't have any emotions left now.