World Junior Championship. Canada U20 - Russia U20 - 5:3

The under 20 Russian national team began their World Junior Championship campaign with a match against hosts Canada. As expected, head coach Valery Bragin gave Ilya Samsonov the nod between the pipes. Carter Hart was Canada's starting netminder.

In front of a packed Air Canada Centre, Canada made a fast start. It eventually led up to an opening goal - Tyson Jost escaped the attentions of our defence, neatly backhanding over Ilya Samsonov's glove. The hosts were throwing bodies into attack, however, out of the blue, Russia got on level terms. High profile defenseman Mikhail Sergachyov was found unmarked at the blue line, he strode in and wristed high into the left corner.

Buoyed by that goal, Russia had some decent chances at the start of the second stanza. Captain Kirill Kaprizov had the best of the lot, failing to squeeze the puck over the line at a tight angle. Unfortunately, our team were made to pay for that miss. On the powerplay, Canada regained their lead as Dylan Strome fired in a one timer glove side. It got worse too, with Nicolas Roy's low wrister catching Ilya Samsonov cold before the period was out.

Not long into the third frame, Canada piled on the misery for Russia. With another man's advantage, Matt Barzal neatly tipped the puck under our goaltender. Nevertheless, refusing to throw the towel in, our players got on the board for a second time. Kirill Kaprizov had space between the circles, took aim and lashed a stinging drive into the net. The Canadians quickly restored their three goal lead with a carbon copy of Dylan Strome's earlier goal, however Yegor Rykov's hopeful wrister scored Russia's third not long afterwards.

That was all Russia had time for though. The team will now prepare for tomorrow's match against Latvia.

Match protocol:

Canada U20 - Russia U20 - 5:3 (1:1, 2:0, 2:2)

Goals:

1:0 Jost (Myers, Dube), 03.11

1:1 Sergachyov (Guryanov), 09.47

2:1 Strome (Barzal, Chabot), 33.15

3:1 Roy (Gauthier), 37.08

4:1 Barzal (Dubois), 43.03

4:2 Kaprizov (Vorobyov, Rykov), 45.12

5:2 Strome (Barzal), 49.06

5:3 Rykov (Yurtaykin, Kaprizov), 50.36

Goalkeepers: Hart - Samsonov

Shots on target: 37 - 17 

Penalty minutes: 6 - 12 

27.12.2016. Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation