Oleg Bratash: "We warned the players that the opponents are strong"

Russian Olympic team head coach Oleg Bratash:

- After watching a video of how the opponents play, we immediately warned our players that today would be a tough match. Just like yesterday, we missed a lot of goalscoring opportunities and the opposing goaltender was solid for Belarus. Following a poor first period, we changed our tactics. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a part of the process. We know that Austria will be our strongest opponents at the competition, it's a match for first place in the table and it will be interesting to see how our young players compete against a team from the elite division. To be honest, I had started to think about penalty shots, but I hadn't chosen who was going to shoot. Vitaly Kravtsov is a technical, talented player, but he couldn't beat the goalkeeper when clean through. Hopefully, our players have enough energy left for tomorrow, all teams are in the same boat. We will decide which goalkeeper to play tomorrow.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation