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Reaction after playing Switzerland at the 2021 Women's World Championship
22.08.2021
Following the first match of the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship against Switzerland (3:1), head coach of the senior Russian women's national team Evgeny Bobariko, defender Maria Batalova and forward Viktoriya Kulishova shared their emotions:
Head coach Evgeny Bobariko:
- Our nerves at the start of the match resulted in us taking needless penalties. Nevertheless, we did well to stand tall to the task on the penalty kill, and we subsequently took full control of the game midway through the third frame. We want all of our players to compete in a compact manner and to help each other, that concerns all zones on the ice. The USA? They are a completely different team in comparison to Switzerland, we needed that friendly with the Americans to feel the level of international ice hockey again. We attacked a lot today.
Defender Maria Batalova:
- It's good that we started the tournament with a victory, we could see that a lot of the players felt nervous. Our goalkeeper Valeria Merkusheva was excellent in net, she made the required saves to keep us in the game. It would have been a lot tougher for us if we have had gone two goals down. Hopefully, we will make less mistakes in the next match against Canada, we always want to show our best ice hockey against North American teams.
Forward Viktoriya Kulishova:
- My teammates helped me score my goal. Even when we were down, we were only thinking about winning the match, we needed to take matters into our own hands. How can we play against Canada? The coaches will give us the plan, which we will stick to.
Head coach Evgeny Bobariko:
- Our nerves at the start of the match resulted in us taking needless penalties. Nevertheless, we did well to stand tall to the task on the penalty kill, and we subsequently took full control of the game midway through the third frame. We want all of our players to compete in a compact manner and to help each other, that concerns all zones on the ice. The USA? They are a completely different team in comparison to Switzerland, we needed that friendly with the Americans to feel the level of international ice hockey again. We attacked a lot today.
Defender Maria Batalova:
- It's good that we started the tournament with a victory, we could see that a lot of the players felt nervous. Our goalkeeper Valeria Merkusheva was excellent in net, she made the required saves to keep us in the game. It would have been a lot tougher for us if we have had gone two goals down. Hopefully, we will make less mistakes in the next match against Canada, we always want to show our best ice hockey against North American teams.
Forward Viktoriya Kulishova:
- My teammates helped me score my goal. Even when we were down, we were only thinking about winning the match, we needed to take matters into our own hands. How can we play against Canada? The coaches will give us the plan, which we will stick to.
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