Four goals and seven deletions: how the Russian hockey team beat Denmark at the start of the MFM-2019

"The defeat of the decade" did not break the Danes

The Russian "junior" was lucky with his rival in the debut match of the World Cup among players under 20 years old. The national team of Denmark was considered one of the obvious outsiders of the tournament before it began and has already managed to confirm its status, losing to the Canadians who claim the gold with a completely indecent score of 0:14. Since 2010, when the same Maple Leaves shipped 16 unanswered goals to the gates of Latvia, the larger crushing history of the MFM in the elite division has not been known.

In addition, in the match with Canada, the Danes lost their main goalkeeper and part-time most promising player. Coach of the European squad Olaf Eller refused to change the 18-year-old goalkeeper Mads Segaard, who plays for his role, is highly regarded before the 2019 NHL Draft in one of the junior leagues of Canada. When the scoreboard was 11: 0, the goalkeeper injured his arm in a collision with field hockey players who fought on the top spot. His backup, William Rort, who was to start in a meeting with Russia, missed three goals after four shots of Maxim Komtu and the company.

🇷🇺 VS 🇩🇰 The composition of our team for the match with the Danes at the World Youth Championship

⚡Tension is growing! Less than an hour before the starting face-off in the first game of the tournament - we start at 00:00 Moscow ✊🏻 pic.twitter.com/2vdNNw6weE

Thus, the youth team of Russia could easily count on winning the debut bout of the MFM-2019. Even without including maximum speeds, Valeriy Bragin’s charges had a tremendous advantage in absolutely all aspects.

Certain fears could inspire unless a possible underestimation of the enemy forces. Meetings with the Scandinavians traditionally add up for the domestic "youth team" is not easy.

The quarter-finals of the world championship of 2016, when Vladislav Kamenev's puck in the last minute of normal time saved the Russians from a sensational defeat, is still too fresh in memory to treat not the strongest opponent down.

The Danes, to their credit, completed their task at least for the match with the Russian national team - they managed to forget about the humiliation experienced 24 hours earlier, and took to the ice with a desire to start the tournament from scratch.

In the first minutes, the Danes even created a couple of dangerous moments at the gates of Daniil Tarasov, the main goalkeeper of the national team.

Leaders showed class in the first most

Decisive in the fights with the participation of teams, between which there is a gap in the class, most often becomes the first missed outsider. It allows the favorite to avoid unnecessary hassle, fraught with gross errors and the need to apply super efforts where it could be avoided. On the eve, for example, the Americans faced this situation. They completely controlled the course of the meeting with Slovakia, but managed to leave for the final break when the score was 0-1 in their favor.

The Russian “youth team” did not face such difficulties. The Russian team upset Rort already in the seventh minute. It was implemented the very first removal of the Danes, earned by striker Lucas Andersen. The captain of the national team Klim Kostin led the main star of the team, Vitaly Kravtsov, to a shot on almost an empty net. Note Kravtsov acts as part of the Chelyabinsk "Tractor" and has extensive experience in the KHL.

🇷🇺 VS 🇩🇰 Started at the MCHM with a victory, having doubled the number of goals in the third period! #RUSDEN

The next night we meet with the Czechs, the beginning of the match at 4:00 am Moscow time. Stock up on coffee and optimism, let us get sick 🔥 # WorldJuniorspic.twitter.com / 0B7F2CxKE3

The next capitulation of the Danish national team goalkeeper had to wait for the one and a half period, during which the Scandinavians managed to play three times in the majority - but to no avail. Tarasov, by and large, never really had to rescue teammates: serious problems with entering the attack zone, clearly seen by the Danes in a meeting with Canada, did not allow them to load the goalkeeper from the Ufa Salavat Yulaev system. Payback for unrealized chances came at the close of the second twenty minutes, when the goal was achieved by a powerful throw from CSKA defender Alexander Romanov in equal compositions.

"Youth" understood the new interpretation of the rules

Perhaps the hottest topic for discussion among hockey officials, coaches and experts before the MCM was a new interpretation of a number of game episodes, suggesting a significant increase in the number of deletions at the Canadian tournament. How it will work in Vancouver and Victoria, the Russian “youth team” has learned from their own experience, having received a total of 26 penalty minutes for the match with Denmark and remained a minority seven times. Moreover, violations of the attacker Cyril of Blind and defender Alexander Alekseev at the beginning of the third period overlapped each other, and as a result, the squad of Bragin played for almost four minutes in a four-by-five format.

However, the Danes were not able to punish Russia for numerous violations committed in a completely innocent game episodes. Their only significant achievement remained an advantage in throws on the target (20 vs. 18 Russian), none of which, however, caught Tarasov off guard.

HIGHLIGHTS: @RKIshockey played 4–4 win at the #WorldJuniors. pic.twitter.com/ST5ssaxxf2

Moreover, in the final segment of the meeting, almost half of which the “youth team” held in a truncated composition, the Scandinavians missed twice more. In both successful attacks, Romanov, who emerged as the best scorer of the national team at the start of the MHM, followed an abandoned puck and recorded two active passes to the asset - an assist for Pavel Shen, who skillfully substituted himself for a defensive shot on the coin, and a pre-match in the episode when Ivan Moroz hit the left Shit gate.

The final success 4-0, of course, does not negate the problems that Russian hockey players faced in Vancouver. But it is definitely more pleasant to analyze and correct mistakes against a background of a positive result, rather than after a painful setback. At this, after the final siren, Bragin focused his attention. He stressed that the “youth team” needs to get rid of unnecessary deletions before the meeting with the Czech Republic, which, according to Moscow time, will begin in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 29.

The next opponent, who started at the MHM-2019 with a victory over Switzerland in overtime, will have to be taken much more seriously by the Russian hockey players than by Denmark. Small forces to beat the semifinalists of the past championship of the planet, who retained much of last year’s squad, led by promising striker Philip Zadina, definitely will not succeed.