IIHF World U18 Championship underway in Belarus saw two openers involving Switzerland v. Canada at Bobruisk and Finland v. Latvia in Minsk. The first match ended with an upset defeat of favorites Canada while young Finns trounced Latvia 7-2 in Minsk.

Czech Republic v. Russia game at Minsk Sports Palace, was preceded with a colorful opening ceremony attended by Frank Gonsalez, IIHF Tournament Director, Yevgenii Vorsin, president of Belarus IHF and other Belarus prominent sports figures. Game started with both teams playing equally strong. Both made it obvious that the tournament meant a great deal to them. At the very outset the opposing teams put on hockey with checks and speed matching senior teams’ performance.

Roman Berdnikov, a foreign based Russian player drew the first penalty early in the game and the Czechs immediately went to aggressive forechecking powerplay. However Sergei Kostenko, Russian goalie successfully denied the Czech team’s attacking effort.

The young Russians were not only first in drawing a penalty but they also succeeded in scoring first, when Sergei Barbashev put the puck past Czech goalie Libor Kacik early in the eighth minute into the first period.

Second period again started with penalties. First, Czech player went to the doghouse, a Russian followed suit shortly after, whereupon Russian team were awarded minor penalty for too many men on the ice to boot. Yet Maxim Shalunov remedied his earlier penalty by scoring a second goal in the 30th minute of the game doubling the Russia’ lead.

Following that goal the Czechs seemed to throw in a more aggressive hockey that eventually paid off when they beat Kostenko with seconds remaining in the second, making it 2-1. And that was not the end of the drama when shortly after Russia’s captain Yevgenii Kuznetsov went off the ice assisted by the team’s medical staff. Luckily, no serious injury resulted, as the player said after the game  “… another spearing hit by an opponent blew off my breath”.

The Czech goal turned to be the only one while Russians frustrated Libor Kacik twice more with goals by Viktor Antipin and Vladislav Namestnikov. Final score 4:1, Russia.

Next game Russia will play Wednesday 14 April at 3.30 p.m. local time against Latvia
After the game Mikhail Vassiliev, Russian team’s head coach had this to say:

“I was particularly pleased with the way my kids were able to pull themselves together, to overcome themselves, were able to keep patience. Needless to say I’m happy with the score as well as with the hockey my team produced. The boys stood off pressure brilliantly at the crucial moments of the game. Whom I could single out? Well, Viktor Antipin was awarded match MVP. Indeed he was most consistent throughout the game. I can hardly name any other player or players; all lines fought gallantly, showed character and team spirit, what hockey is all about”.

“Our preparations for tomorrow match against Latvia will be a standard routine. No week opponents at this tournament. We will of course observe carefully Latvian team’s style in their opining game: there was no intrigue to it really. However you should know your opposition well enough, shouldn’t you?”

Answering a question on Kuznetsov who left the ice at the end of the second period Vassiliev said Evgeni was all right, he was not hurt. “I guess you understand: that’s the star plight – they tried to contain him personally, which was obvious”. 

- How would you rate remaining games? What are your expectations?

“I don’t like predictions. Therefore let us try and do without them. We will simply play one game after the other. One thing is clear enough: as I already said no week opponents at this championship”.

Czech - Russia 1:4 (0:1, 1:1, 0:2)
Goals: 0:1 Barbashev (Berdnikov) 7:01; 0:2 Shalunov (Kartayev, Berdnikov) 29:45; 1:2 Vachovec (Jank, Frk) 39:10 PP1; 1:3 Antipin (Shalunov, Stepanov) 48:49 PP2; 1:4  Namestnikov (Kuznetsov, Barbashev) 57:00
Goalies: Kasik - Kostenko

Russian Ice Hockey Federation
Press Service