Reaction after beating the Czech Republic at the U20 Four Nations

Following the entertaining 4:3 victory against the Czech Republic on the road in the Four Nations, under 20 Russian national team head coach Igor Larionov and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin shared their emotions:

Head coach Igor Larionov:

- Thank you to the organisers of this tournament, we stayed in a wonderful city and everyone managed to show great ice hockey. Our goalkeeper Yegor Guskov scored his first goal of the competition today, even if it was in his own net! We joked with him about this in the dressing room. Overall, our players competed with the correct mentality, they fought for each other and continued to stick to the game plan even when we were down 2:3 in the third period. We missed Daniil Kuzmin today, he received an arm injury in the first period. We will now watch how the guys get on with their respective clubs, the two tournaments in November which will allow us to almost make final decisions concerning the roster for the World Junior Championship.

Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin:

- It was a good game, the hosts had loud home support. Nevertheless, we coped with the task psychologically, trying hard and playing until the end. We took advantage of our opportunity on the powerplay. These matches against strong opponents showed just how ready we are for the upcoming World Championship in the winter. We have a great group here, we are all friends and the coaches made us a united group. Pavel Tyutnev was especially good today on the ice!