"New Year's Miracle": the Russian team won against the Czechs at the MFM-2019, scoring two goals in the minority

Carnival will not

At the last championship of the planet among hockey players not older than 20 years, which took place in the American Buffalo, the national teams of Russia and the Czech Republic gave the fans one of the most effective and dramatic group stage fights. The Czechs, led by still quite young at the time, Martin Nechas and Philip Zadina (both forwards, as well as the author of the winning goal in that match, defender Philip Kral, take part in the current world championship), three times went ahead in the score in the main time. But they almost missed the advantage of three goals in the end, when Valery Bragin's wards, who slowly rolled into the tournament, nevertheless got down to business with all seriousness.

A year later, more than 14,000 spectators gathered in the stands of the Rogers Arena in Vancouver is an amazing figure, because during the third game day of the 2010 MHM, the Ice Palace was hosted by a single match, and without the participation of Canadians. nine abandoned washers are not seen. The Russian “junior team” played with peers from the Czech Republic in a style similar to that in which the national team holds their matches with this opponent in tournaments of any level. The meeting was held in a ragged pace, full of strength martial arts and up to the middle of the third period was not pleased with a large number of scoring chances.

🇨🇿 VS 🇷🇺 Hour before the match!

Composition: Kochetkov (Tarasov). Zhuravlev - Il.Morozov, Muranov - Galimov - Blind. Samorukov (A) - Rubinchik, Kostin (K) - Kravtsov (A) - Denisenko. Alekseev - Romanov, Kovalenko - Shen - Starkov. Marchenko - Iv.Morozov - Podkolzin. Olshansky. # WorldJuniorspic.twitter.com / DZWMJnakUY

But her story came out, perhaps even more uncommon. In vain, that the opponents who had perfectly studied each other built only three effective attacks on two.

Removed a little and with benefit

The main topic for discussion on the results of the Russian start-up match at the World Cup was an unusually large number of deletions. Having defeated peers from Denmark with a score of 4: 0, Bragin’s squad managed to earn a total of 26 penalty minutes and remained four times against five opponents - fortunately, not enough craftsmen to take advantage of it. Therefore, at the end of the match, the head coach of the youth team, the leading players of the team, and journalists with experts spoke of the need to reduce the number of violations of the rules committed out of the blue. So that in meetings with opponents comparable in strength to the national team it would not be very tight.

The lesson received on the eve was not just learned by domestic hockey players, who had retired with the Czech Republic only five times in 60 minutes - moreover, defender Danil Zhuravlyov and striker Klim Kostin received their small penalties for clashes with rivals and did not force their comrades to fight in the “four to five” format. In two out of three cases, when the Bragin guys were still in the minority, they managed to carry out effective counterattacks. Toward the end of the first period, with a slight Czech advantage, Artem Galimov opened the scoring in the match, and Nikolay Kovalenko, son of Olympic champion Albertville and ex-player of a number of NHL clubs Andrei Kovalenko, punished the opponent for an error in the opponent’s attack zone.

🇨🇿 VS 🇷🇺 There is a victory! #CZERUS

Two goals in the minority - is this not a New Year miracle 😁 # WorldJuniorspic.twitter.com / sjJxQabThQ

As part of the “unders” tournaments, of course, this is not the first time: the Swedish team, for example, shocked the Americans in the semifinals of the previous MFM, scoring two goals (including the winning one) in one minority in the middle of the third period. But the official page of FHR in the social network Twitter did not accidentally name the goals of Galimov and Kovalenko, at the club level, playing for the Ak Bars Kazan and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, respectively, the New Year miracle. In the meeting with the Czechs, the “youths” did not succeed in the attack, the special teams of the majority did not work in the best way - and against this background, two accurate throws after their own deletions really came as a surprise.

Curious puck revived intrigue

Closing the transfer of Pavel Shen and increasing the advantage of the Russians to two goals, Kovalenko unsuccessfully hit the board and received an injury that forced him to miss the ending of the second period. But the troubles of the “youths” did not end there - the Czechs, who continued to play in the majority, nevertheless realized a numerical advantage. To disappoint Petr Kochetkov, who very worthily replaced Danil Tarasov at the last frontier and never made him doubt the loyalty of Bragin’s decision to rotate the goalkeepers, they were helped by a curious ricochet. The defender David Kvasnichka, who attacked from the blue line, hit the face of the attacker Yakhim Kondelik, who won the position on the penny, after which the puck fell along the intricate trajectory beyond the goal line.

Reducing the gap to the minimum, the Czechs logically went all-in for the final twenty minutes: coach Václav Varada to the limit increased the load on the main stars of the team, and in certain moments Kochetkov (a total of Russian goalkeeper made 24 salvation) had to show all his skill. But in open hockey with a minimum number of stops, local hockey players regularly found their chances. The captain of the youth team Kostin, for example, missed a great opportunity to kill the intrigue long before the final siren - the attacker could punish the opponent for negligence in dealing with the puck in his zone, but did not beat Lukasz Vosta, who had never missed the same team at the MFM-2019 .

Turn the ending of the meeting into a truly nervous Czech team prevented its own discipline. Defender Daniel Bukach retired two and a half minutes before the end of the third period, which greatly simplified the task of retaining the minimum margin for the Russian youth team. Returning to the ice, Kovalenko was much closer to making a double than the Czechs - to overtime, but the shot of one of the heroes of the meeting at the empty gates at the last moment blocked Zadina.

HIGHLIGHTS: Russia beats the Czechs 2-1 at the #WorldJuniors thanks to two shorthanded goals. The Czechs had an odd goal. Watch it in this video! Read more: https://t.co/Gl9LOAoI8G@russiahockey_en@russiahockey@narodnitympic.twitter.com/59nKUqUIPO

Having stood and won a second consecutive victory in the main time, Russian hockey players guaranteed themselves participation in the playoffs of the World Championship - with six points in assets and an advantage over the Danes as a result of a personal meeting, Bragin’s wards would not, under any circumstances, go below the fourth line of the tournament table Group A. But the next two fights of the “youth team” in the main championship round of the planet of easy living are not promised to the team in any way. In particular, Switzerland, with which the national team will meet in the early morning of Monday, December 31, plays a pleasant hockey fan’s eye and creates serious problems for every next opponent - including Canada, which defeated the Europeans with a score of 3: 2.