A semi-final against familiar opponents

Since 1996 when the winner of the IIHF World Championship was decided in playoff rounds, Russia and the USA have met six times. It has been a happy experience for our team so far, as we have beaten America every time: 2005 7:2, 2006 5:1, 2008 4:2, 2011 6:1, 2014 5:3 and 2015 3:2. 

Despite the Americans being pre-match favourites for some of those matches, Russia have always come out on top. In 2014 and 2015 most journalists expected the USA to come out on top, but Russia silenced the critics by winning 5:3 in Malmo and 3:2 in Montreal.

The situation is very much the same now. America have breezed through the tournament so far after coming second in Group A behind Sweden, and they took the Czech Republic apart in their quarter-final thrashing them 7:0. Our team topped Group B, but struggled against Denmark. The players trailed 2:3 with 44 seconds to go, but captain Vladislav Kamenev became the hero of the day - after netting the equaliser, he scored the overtime winner five minutes into the extra frame.

The USA have a talented young squad mostly made up of students, and a lot of them are expected to go on to achieve big things in the NHL. Their star player is forward Auston Matthews, a player who currently plays for ZSC Lions Zurich in Switzerland. He scored a hat trick against the Czechs in the previous round, and overall he has eleven points in the tournament (7+4).

American head coach Ron Wilson had this to say before the game:

- Russia got lucky in their quarter-final with Denmark, I thought that they would win easily, but if you don't take your opponents seriously those things can happen. The Russians are playing just like the Czechs, so our chances of victory are high. We're playing excellently in Finland, we're improving with every game, and I am counting on us making up for our poor results in previous seasons.

The USA - Russia 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship semi-final will begin at 21.00 Moscow time inside the Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland. Match TV and our site will broadcast the game live, while you can keep up to date with events by following our official English Twitter account.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation