In early November, the already traditional series of matches between the youth national team of Russia and the teams of Canadian leagues up to 20 years started. After quite a successful performance last year, when Valeriy Bragin's wards won half the matches and lost only in shootouts, the national hockey players wanted to at least repeat that result. The main composition of the team is expectedly formed by athletes playing in the Continental Hockey League (KHL), but not without players from overseas championships.
According to the regulations, Russian legionaries have the right to play for the national team only in matches with the team of their own championship. Thus, the strikingly launched season forwards Ivan Chekhovich (“Be-Kome”), Dmitry Zavgorodniy (“Rimuski”) and Alexander Khovanov (“Moncton”) could only get a call on the game with the team of Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJMHL), and Red Dir's defender Alexander Alekseev of the Western Hockey League (WHL).
At the start of the Super Series, the Russian team met with the WHL team. Alekseev appeared on the ice, but was not able to write at his own expense points for performance. Wards Bragin acted sharper and put on goal Ian Scott on five shots more (28 vs. 23), but that was not enough to win. On the puck Dillan Cozens and Jordi Belleriva, they responded only with an accurate throw of the forward of “Salavat Yulaev” Pavel Shen. He was assisted by the Sochi striker Pavel Starkov, who is the leader on points in the KHL among the youth players (2 + 2 in the 21st match).
It should be noted that the WHL team is one of the most inconvenient opponents of the Russian team in the Super Series matches. The teams held 30 meetings among themselves, in 20 of which the Canadians won.
But the team of Bragin took just 24 hours to do the work on the mistakes and beat their opponents for the 11th time in history.
The meeting began again under the dictation of the Canadians, who managed to open the scoring in the sixth minute - Tai Smith defender of the New Jersey Devils, who was selected for the 17th number in the draft, scored. However, the Russians responded immediately with three washers performed by Bulat Shafigullin, still the same Starkov and Ivan Muranov, who struck the already empty gates of the enemy.
After the match, Bragin admitted that he was not surprised by the powerful starting onslaught of Canadians, but I am glad that his players managed to cope with him and level the game.
“The most important thing is that we managed to eliminate the mistakes that we made in the first match. The quality of hockey in our team was significantly better than yesterday, ”Bragin TASS quotes.
He confirmed that, together with the coaching staff, he analyzed the result of the first meeting, which helped to achieve significant progress.
“They told the guys how to act in specific situations. They got it right. In the minority they defended themselves confidently, most of them abandoned at the right moment. I am pleased with the outcome of the match. Winning always brings positive emotions, but there is still something to work on in terms of improving the quality of the game, ”the national team head coach added.
Next in turn, the team had two fights with the historically most awkward opponent - the OHL team. Since 2003, the Russians have only six times been able to beat the overseas enemy. It is noteworthy that all victories were won in the period from 2012 to 2017. Until then, the lose-lose series consisted of 18 games, and the difference of goals was a disastrous 35:88.
The Russians noticeably intensified to this confrontation - Dmitry Samorukov and Alexey Topchenko (both - “Gelf Storm”), Kirill Maksimov (“Niagara Aysdogs”), Alexey Lipanov (“Kitchener Rangers”) joined the KHL players. But for the victory of their presence was not enough. The OHL team three times upset goalkeeper Daniil Tarasov and scored his 25th victory in the Super Series. The main hero of the match in the home team was the striker Ottawa Senators Barrett Heyton. The fifth number of the last draft of the NHL recorded a goal and an assist.
Wards Bragin responded with only one accurate throw, which was organized by the best sniper and scorer of the team - Sheng and Starkov, respectively. At the same time, domestic athletes again acted very sharply and surpassed their rival in the number of threats to the goal (23 vs. 19). Unfortunately, this was not enough.
After the third match hockey players waiting for a short break, which will allow the coaching staff of the national team to correct the shortcomings and prepare the team for the next battle with the hockey players from OHL. The meeting will be held on November 13 in the city of Oshawa, after which the Russians will have two fights with the QJMHL team. Athletes from Quebec are the least successful in playing with the young Red Car, having won only 17 wins and 13 defeats.