Russian U20 hockey team defeated Switzerland 5:2 to win the bronze medal at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada. Finland beat the USA 3:2 and won the Championship.
On the previous Championship in Buffalo, USA, Russian team was defeated 2:4 by the host team in the quarterfinal and failed to win the medal for the first time since 2010. Before the beginning of the present tournament, Valeri Bragin noted that the current team members are stronger than the team that played last year. The head coach took the liberty of rejecting the quarterbacks of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Ivan Chekhovich (30 scored goals + 27 assists in 34 games) and Dmitry Zavgorodniy (19+22 in 36 games).
Only team captain Klim Kostin and defender Dmitri Samorukov had the game experience from the last year’s tournament. According to official information, Ivan Chekhovich didn’t get into the team being injured at the training games. However, at the end of the training, 19-year old forward was in a good health, and on December 30 he scored a goal for his team Baie-Comeau Drakkar at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Regular Championship.
Before the beginning of the tournament, the coaching staff named 21 players, leaving two vacancies for additional applicants; but the day before the game with Denmark, Saveliy Olshanskiy was included in the team. Nikita Shashkov entered the team before the third game of group tournament with Switzerland and successfully joined Pavel Shen and Stepan Starkov. Shashkov scored goals at the quarterfinal and final games. Therefore, another forward of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Alexander Khovanov was off the team.
On November 27, former coach of national team Oleg Znarok was appointed as a consultant to the Russian junior team staff and headed to the World Junior Championship with the team. Under his leadership in 2014-2018, Russian team won 2018 Olympics and 2014 World Championship, as well as one silver (2015) and two bronze (2016, 2017) medals on the World tournaments. Before 2018 World Championship he he left his position as a head coach. Today his responsibilities are training the reserve team, working with the junior, youth and Olympic teams. He actively helped Bragin during the team’s training process before the tournament in Canada this year.
Russkiy Mir
