Roman Rotenberg: "I am sure that these players can achieve a lot"

In an interview with championat.com, the RIHF's first vice-president Roman Rotenberg summed up the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship:

- We can be proud of this team. They showed character and everything required to win. The guys were close to success, but in sport the strongest team wins. If these guys will continue working, I am sure that they can achieve a lot in their careers. This was a really strong team! All of the coaches are strong too - a lot depended on them.

Our team didn't have any stars or superstars, but they were close to winning. It doesn't mean a thing that no one was selected for the team of the tournament. We were strong as a team.

Russia didn't lose one game in normal time. We could have beaten Finland in the final, we had a lot of chances, but something was lacking. The fact that we had less time to rest than Finland also took its toll Nevertheless we equalised six seconds before the end, and this speaks volumes about the team's character.