Reaction after playing Sweden at the 2022 World Junior Championship

Following the maiden match of the 2022 World Junior Championship against Sweden (3:6) in Canada, under 20 Russian national team head coach Sergei Zubov and forwards Matvei Michkov and Fyodor Svechkov shared their emotions.

Russia U20 head coach Sergei Zubov:

- It was a good game in which we committed more mistakes than the opponents. We cannot give away penalties like we did today, our discipline has to improve. Yaroslav Askarov's performance in net? Yes, this is something which concerns us. We will analyse the situation and subsequently make a decision concerning our starting goalkeeper for tomorrow. Am I satisfied with our lines apart from our first one? The second line also scored a goal, and the fourth line created scoring opportunities. Our leading players are in the first line. Do I want Matvei Michkov to play at the 2022 Olympic Games? At this moment in time, we are only thinking about the World Junior Championship. He has a great shot and can use it well.

Russia U20 forward Matvei Michkov:

- We have to win our upcoming matches, we'll do everything in order to achieve this. My goals? For the first one, I simply drove to the net and wanted to force the puck over the line. When I scored my second, I was simply trying to get the puck on the Swedish net in order to create a chance to score. Unfortunately, we just couldn't tally that equalising goal.

Russia U20 forward Fyodor Svechkov:

- We lost because we lost our discipline, you can't allow the opponents to play 5-on-3. It was really tough for us after going 1:4 down, instead of conceding we needed to play with the initiative and take the game to Sweden.