Russia 6 USA 3
If there were any questions as to just how good the defending champion Russians would be in this year’s World Junior Championship most of them were answered Tuesday.
They may not have been at the top of their game in their pre-competition meeting with the United States, but they gave an indication of their creativity, quickness and skill level in an entertaining 6-3 victory before 5,946 fans at the Centrium.
“I think we were a little nervous, as it’s the first game for us and everything is different in the world junior,” said Russia star forward Nail Yakupov, who plays junior for the Sarnia Sting of the OHL. “But we have time to change some things and we’ll get better.”
But from first impressions the Russians can’t get much better or it’s bad news for the rest of the teams.
Russia, as did the Americans, sat out several of their top players, including their only returnee from last year’s team that scored five goals in the third period to beat Canada 5-3 in the gold medal game.
Evgeny Kuznetsov will return to the lineup along with Mikhail Grigorenko of the Quebec Remparts, who along with Yakupov are considered two of the top players to enter the NHL draft this season.
One thing the Russians don’t appear to need is help in goal. Seventeen-year-old Andrey Vasilevskiy was outstanding to say the least and times brilliant, finishing with 38 saves.
His best stop came with two seconds left in the first period with the Russians holding a 2-1 lead. He came across the crease and somehow got his blocker on a shot that was all but in.
In the middle stanza he made back-to-back legs saves on close-in shots, which may have been the back-breaker. Seconds later Alexander Khokhlachev grabbed the puck in front of the US net and beat netminder Jack Campbell to make it 3-1.
“We had chances on the power play but he (Vasilevskiy) made four or five great saves,” said US head coach Dean Blais. “He was good when he had to be and they capitalized on a couple of their chances and we didn’t.”
Yakupov liked the way his young teammate played in goal, but wasn’t about to say he would be No. 1 when they open the championship, Dec. 26 against Swizerland in Calgary.
“He played two years in the under-18 and is a big butterfly style goalie. He played well, but we don’t know yet who will be No. 1. We will wait to see, but really when you make the world junior team there are two No. 1 goalies.”
The US squad doesn’t have to worry about goaltending either as Campbell, who had 21 saves, was the top goalie in the tournament last year.
“He will see those quality shots no matter who he plays and he didn’t have much chance on a few of them tonight,” said Blais. “The first two were rebounds. We didn’t have anyone covering.”
Blais liked the way his team worked, and the number of shots they got, but knows there’s areas they need to improve upon, and quickly.
“I thought we played hard, but weren’t very effective at times. We didn’t do the gritty part of the game that needs to be done, like blocking shots and the hard backcheck.
“But give them credit they scored two power play goals, a shorthanded goal and one into an empty net. I was disappointed in our special teams.”
The Americans also got a shorthanded marker from J.T. Miller at 19:42 of the second period that cut the margin to 3-2.
“When we made it 2-1 I thought we were back in it and again at 3-2, but we never got the lead and they got the bounce they needed,” added Blais.
The Russians jumped into a 2-0 lead in the first period as Ignat Zemchenko scored a power play marker at 2:25 and Victor Antipin connected at 2:54. Josh Archibald made it 2-1 at 3:52.
After the teams exchanged single markers in the second period, Yakupov scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 7:57 of the third period and Nikita Kucherov made it 4-2 with a tip in on the power play at 13:54. Kenny Agostino gave the US some life at 14:34, but Kucherov found the empty net at 18:21.
• The Americans return to action tonight as they host Swizerland in Camrose . . . The next action at the Centrium is Thursday when Canada meet the Swiss at 7 p.m. . . . Jarred Tinordi, whose father Mark was born and raised in Red Deer, was a healthy scratch for the US. . . . In other action Sweden downed Denmark 8-0 in Olds.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com