2019 World Junior Championship. Russia - Czech Republic - 2:1

In the second match of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship, the under 20 Russian national team defeated the Czech Republic 2:1!

As expected, the Czechs gave our team a real test, but two shorthanded goals in the first two periods allowed Russia to claim a second consecutive victory at the tournament and keep pace with Canada at the top of Group 1. In the first game, Daniil Tarasov was the starting goaltender, however head coach Valery Bragin gifted Pyotr Kochetkov a chance in net for this game.

It was a tight first frame and Russia opened the scoring with only three minutes remaining. When killing a late penalty, Artyom Galimov burst away on a counterattack with Kirill Slepets, and he whipped a superb effort beyond the Czech goalkeeper to make it 1:0.

Incredibly, a second shorthanded marker was notched in the second stanza. Too fast for his marker, Nikolai Kovalenko was suddenly clean through, and he slid the puck under the emerging goaltender to double the advantage. Jachym Kondelik promptly scored on that particular powerplay to halve the Czech deficit, however Russia held on to win 2:1 and make it a perfect six points in the competition!

The next game will take place against Switzerland on December 30.

Match protocol:

Russia - Czech Republic - 2:1 (1:0, 1:1, 0:0)

Goals:

1:0 Galimov (Slepets), 17.05
2:0 Kovalenko (Shen, Alexeev), 15.03
2:1 Kondelik (Kvasnicka, Plasek), 15.50

Goalkeepers: Kochetkov - Dostal

Shots on target: 28 - 25

Faceoffs: 28 - 22

Penalty minutes: 10 - 14

28.12.2018.