World Junior Championship. Latvia U20 - Russia U20 - 1:9

The under 20 Russian national team played the second match of the 2017 World Junior Championship against Latvia in Toronto, Canada. Head coach Valery Bragin made one major change to the line-up, with Vladislav Sukhachyov replacing Ilya Samsonov in net. 

Fired up to make amends for yesterday's defeat to Canada, our players began strongly. Danil Yurtaykin opened the scoring early on, beautifully cutting in from the left boards before neatly backhanding beyond the goalkeeper. Alexander Polunin then contrived to receive a 2+2 penalty for high sticking, but when emerging back on to the ice, he made up for his error - moving beyond the Canadian defensemen, he snapped a wrister home five hole. Our players weren't finished there either, as Pavel Karnaukhov bundled the puck over the line for a third goal.

Latvia pulled Gustavs Grigals for Denijs Romanovskis in the second stanza, but that proved to be an awful decision. The new Latvian goalkeeper was thrown into a baptism of fire, conceding three goals from Kirill Kaprizov, Alexander Polunin and Kirill Belyaev within five minutes. Latvia's Rudolfs Balcers did get his team on the board in between those Russian markers, however it didn't have any affect on the game whatsoever.

The Latvian head coach pulled the forlorn Denijs Romanovskis for Gustav Grigals again in an attempt to calm his team down. Fortunately for us, that plan also failed. Our players continued dominating, scoring a sixth on an early powerplay through a Kirill Kaprizov effort on the doorstep. Yakov Trenin whacked in a loose puck for the seventh, before Kirill Kaprizov completed his hat trick in the closing stages. 9:1, Russia claim their first win of the 2017 World Junior Championship!

Match protocol:

Latvia U20 - Russia U20 - 1:9 (0:3, 1:3, 0:3)

Goals:

0:1 Yurtaykin (Dronov), 05.33

0:2 Polunin (Kaprizov, Sidorov), 12.10

0:3 Karnaukhov (Guryanov, Kudako), 17.39

0:4 Kaprizov (Vorobyov, Polunin), 20.56

1:4 Balcers (Dziercals), 23.42

1:5 Polunin (Rykov, Vorobyov), 24.21

1:6 Belyaev (Yurtaykin), 25.04

1:7 Kaprizov (Rykov), Vorobyov), 46.07

1:8 Trenin (Kaprizov, Polunin), 49.28

1:9 Kaprizov (Rykov, Vorobyov), 56.07

Goalkeepers: Grigals/Romanovskis - Sukhachyov

Shots on target: 26 - 40 

Penalty minutes: 18 - 10 

27.12.2016. Toronto, Canada.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation