The tournament became the sixth as the head coach of the Russian youth team. The previous World Cup in Montreal and Toronto was the first in which Bragin did not lead the Russian national team to the final - the team won bronze medals... Earlier, Russian hockey players led by Bragin won three silver medals (Calgary / Edmonton 2012, Toronto / Montreal 2015 and Helsinki 2016), and in 2011 in the same Buffalo they became world champions.
Back to Buffalo
For hockey fans, the American city of Buffalo is associated primarily with one of the main victories of Russian ice hockey in the post-Soviet era - gold medals at the 2011 World Youth Championship. Then Bragin's national team with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko in the squad won a crazy victory over the Canadians in the final, having won back from the score 0: 3. The historic victory in Buffalo 2011 remains the only one for Russians at the MFM over the past 15 years.
Seven years later, the Russian “youth team” again had to play the world championship at Lake Erie, and the same Valery Bragin is at the head of it. Unlike 2011, Bragin's team arrived in the United States without hockey players playing consistently at the senior level, and the main star among the Russians was Andrei Svechnikov, who is considered the only real rival of Swede Rasmus Dalin for first place in the 2018 NHL draft.
Group: two out of four
Russian hockey players started the tournament unsuccessfully, losing 4: 5 to the Czech team in a bright match. Twice the Russians recouped, with the score 2: 5, Bragin's team reduced the gap to a minimum, but the Russian team did not have enough time for more. A lot of criticism was caused by the game of the main goalkeeper Alexei Melnichuk, who conceded four goals.
“We will work, improve the game in the minority and the majority,” Bragin said after the match. “The first game is always difficult. The problem is that this year I haven’t played at the world championships, so they don’t have such experience, there is a completely different level of hockey. the first game, and it turned out to be a little crumpled, although we played well in moments. "
The next match with the Swiss (5: 2) turned out to be mirrored for the Russians. They took the lead twice, but each time they gave the opponent a chance to win back. The outcome of the game was decided by the puck of Artur Kayumov and Georgy Ivanov. The next game of the Russian national team ended with a similar score - against the team of Belarus (5: 2). The double was designed by Klim Kostin, who, together with Artur Kayumov, shared the second place in the list of the top scorers of the group stage (5 points) - only the American Casey Mittelstadt was higher (6 points).
The group stage of the Russian national team was to end with a match against one of the favorites of the tournament - the team of Sweden. By that time, the Russian hockey players had already secured their participation in the quarterfinals, and Vladislav Sukhachev had staked out the place for the first number. The rivals had a "fiery" first period with four goals scored, and in the remaining 40 minutes they scored twice less. As a result, the Swedes put the squeeze on the Russian national team in the shootout -.
“The optional deletions took a lot of energy, - Bragin explained the defeat. - The goals conceded in the first period, let's say, were easy. It was not the opponent who showed skill, but our mistakes led to them. happened ".
As a result, the Russian team took third place in the group, letting the Swedes and Czechs go ahead, and got into the quarterfinals rivals reigning champions the world of Americans.
Quarterfinals: Not Enough Puck
"The Americans have a very good team, they play very well, you need to act tactically against it," Valery Bragin said before the quarterfinals.
The installation didn't work. Already in the first minute, the defender of the Russian national team Artem Minulin “grabbed” two minutes for the delay with a stick, and the Americans opened the score. Soon the Russians were again in the minority, but held out, after which Klim Kostin and Marcel Sholokhov entered the zone, and the last throw from an uncomfortable hand equalized the score. Nevertheless, the playing advantage of the US national team was still tangible (the score on shots in the first twenty minutes - 19-6), and in the 15th minute Kyler Yamamoto brought the Americans ahead.
The Russians spent the end of the first period and the beginning of the second in the minority - defender Vladislav Semin received a penalty "5 + 20". Having repulsed, Bragin's team gradually began to level the game, and at the beginning of the third period, Andrei Altybarmakyan scored his first goal in the tournament. In the 53rd minute, the Americans again took the lead: Dylan Samberg threw the puck into the zone, and Kieffer Bellows was the first to bounce off the side, behind which Arthur Kayumov did not notice. Marcel Sholokhov could compare the score, but hit the post, and in the last minute of the third period, the Americans hit an empty net - 4: 2.
“We didn’t have enough puck,” Valery Bragin said after the game. “There were chances, but this was hockey, with an equal score the opponent managed to score a goal, not us. As for mistakes, we warned that the Americans start very powerfully. And today in the first period they had an advantage. In the second period the advantage was already on our side. And the third was equal until the puck was hammered by the opponent. "
No experience, no masters
"Of course, (Russian) hockey players do not have enough experience, international experience, experience of playing in the KHL," he said before the tournament to the R-Sport agency Olympic champion 1992, ex-head coach of the junior national team of Russia Vitaly Prokhorov. - Recall that in Bragin's teams, the result was always made by people who played in the KHL on an ongoing basis. Now there are no such people. Why not is a separate conversation. "
The lack of experience definitely affected the result of the Russian national team in Buffalo. Let us remind that the players of 1998 missed their junior world championship because of the "Meldonium scandal" and had not played at a serious international level before. All this, coupled with the lack of really bright players for this age, led to the fact that the Russian team became the worst in the tournament in playing the majority (one realized attempt out of twenty).
It is significant that the top scorers of the Russian national team in the tournament were Klim Kostin (8 points) from the St. Louis Blues system and Andrey Svechnikov (5) from the Barry Colts. "Born in 1998 - well, you can see for yourself. Klim Kostin and Andrey Svechnikov are a year or two younger, respectively, but they looked stronger than many guys," Valery Bragin said after the quarterfinals.
Great hopes before the tournament were associated with Artem Manukyan, Mikhail Maltsev, Andrey Altybarmakyan, who played in Russia, but did not have a lot of playing practice in the KHL, but in total these forwards had only one goal. The Russian “legionaries” Vitaly Abramov and Dmitry Sokolov also played clearly below their capabilities - both scored one goal each.
The 2019 World Youth Championship will take place in the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Victoria. The contract of the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Bragin expires at the end of the season, the specialist refused to talk about his future at the end of the tournament.
The Russian youth ice hockey team lost to the Swedish team in the final match of the group stage of the U20 World Championship.
The main time of the meeting ended with a score of 3: 3, and the Russians were constantly in the position of catching up. He brought the first goal in the match to his asset - he leveled the score, two minutes later brought the Scandinavians forward again - restored the status quo, on the 55th minute Glenn Gustafsson seemed to put an end to the match, but even then the Russians caught up with the opponent.
In the shootout, luck was on the side of Tre Kronur.
This defeat threw Valery Bragin's charges to the third place in the group, which means a meeting with the US national team in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
This is perhaps the most difficult lot for young Russians.
If our team had won with a difference of two goals, it would have won first place in its group and would have played against Slovakia in the playoffs. A one-goal win would have brought us to the Finns.
However, the defeat happened - and in the next round the hosts of the tournament will have to confront the Americans.
The forward of the Russian national team Alexey, who scored in the 57th minute with the score 3: 2 in favor of the Swedes and allowed our team to transfer the game to overtime, admitted that he still expects to win the tournament.
“Upset because we lost, but really
we don't care who we play in the quarterfinals. We came to the World Championship to win.
Did the team have a recession in the second period? The guys wanted to win the fight, so jerks and holds were unnecessary - a lot of deletions because of this. We played most of the period in the minority, so someone fell out of rhythm, someone, on the contrary, outplayed, - the official website of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) quotes the forward as saying.
When asked about the strength of the American national team, Polodyan answered calmly:
“The USA has a good team. But they lost to the Slovaks, played a draw with the Canadians. This means that we can do it too. "
Another forward of the youth "Red Machine" complained about the not very high level of play of his team:
“I cannot say that I am satisfied with the quality of the game. There were moments, but something was always missing.
We try not to concede such easy goals as in the first period, but when this happens, we stretch the game, play to the end. "
The defender called the second period in the performance of the Russian national team a failure.
“In the second period, we retired a lot, played“ five by three ”constantly, lost a lot of energy.
In general, we failed these 20 minutes due to deletions. We need to fix it. You can't win the game out of the minority. "
The head coach of the Russian national team, Bragin, also did not pass by a large number of penalties in the second third of the meeting.
“We worked out a lot in the minority, it needs to be removed. The next match is already the playoffs. On the other hand, it was good workout for us.
There were a lot of chances to win, but it happened so. In the end, they changed the goalkeeper for the sixth player, they wanted to win in regulation time, but it didn't work out a little, ”the mentor complained.
- Recession in the second period? Well, of course it has to do with playing in the minority. We played like that for about twelve minutes.
Some guys worked hard, they needed time to recover. Others play poorly in the minority, they did not go out on the ice. "
Bragin appreciated the level of play of the next opponent of his charges - the US national team.
“The team is good, very playful. Against her, you need to act tactically correctly. They have a good majority, so you need to remove the deletions. "
The historical component of the coming confrontation can inspire a certain optimism in Russians.
Our youth team met three times with their peers from the United States at the stage of the MFM quarterfinals and never lost.
Other pairs of 1/4 finals: Canada - Switzerland, Czech Republic - Finland, Sweden - Slovakia.
You can get acquainted with other news, materials and statistics on the Russian national ice hockey team, as well as in the groups of the sports department on social networks
The organizers of the Youth World Cup in the American Buffalo put the national teams of Russia and Sweden in a privileged position. Yes, the price turned out to be quite high - I had to go out on the ice in the evening of December 31 local time, when the Europeans were celebrating the coming of the new year with might and main. But, closing the program of the group round of the tournament, both teams knew for sure what result of the head-to-head confrontation would suit them and with whom they would have to fight in the quarterfinals, if something suddenly did not work out.
No feats were required from the Swedes: having collected at least one point, Thomas Monten's wards would have finished first in Group B and got a simple opponent in the opening round of the playoffs. The Russians, who went out on the ice in the rank of the third team of their pool, had to win in regular time in order to somehow improve the tournament position, and crush the Scandinavians with a difference of three goals in order to push them from the top.
The maximum task seemed extremely difficult, because in the group stage of the youth world championships, the Swedish national team had not lost since 2006. In particular, she inflicted six consecutive defeats to Russian hockey players.
Valery Bragin's squad would like to do the impossible, but during the entire fight, unfortunately, was one step behind the opponent. It all started with the fact that in less than 18 minutes, the Russians missed two offensive goals after their own mistakes in defense. Fortunately, both times the nominal owners managed to quickly recoup (the exact throws of Timothy Liljegren and Klim Kostin, for example, were separated by only 46 seconds) and did not allow the opponent to gain control over what was happening on the ice.
However, the first test turned out to be just a warm-up in comparison with what awaited the Russian youth team further. At the junction of the first and second periods, Bragin's guys held out three against five for more than two minutes. Anatoly Elizarov and Mikhail Maltsev retired with an interval of three seconds, and even before they left the penalty box, German Rubtsov violated the rules. Vladislav Sukhachev had to show miracles of goalkeeper technique in order to keep his possessions shut. And the Chelyabinsk player coped, finally removing the questions about who will start the playoffs of the World Championship in the status of the main first number of the team.
This situation could not but affect the actions Russian hockey players... Until the end of the second twenty minutes, the youth team came to their senses, only four times during the entire period disturbing the goalkeeper of the Swedish national team Philip Gustavsson. True, the Scandinavians were also depressed, who had missed the tremendous opportunity to once again lead the score. Before the final siren, Elias Pettersson and company played twice more in the majority, but they could not distinguish themselves in unequal compositions.
But the calm nature - without a tangible advantage of one of the teams - the meeting did not last long. Five and a half minutes before the end of regular time, Sukhachev capitulated for the third time: Glenn Gustafsson made the life of the Russian team extremely difficult, being the first to finish off after Axel Junsson's throw from Fellby.
The Russian youth team, forced to prove themselves again and again, did not blunder. Alexey Polodyan managed to throw the puck and restore parity on the scoreboard, and when there was just over a minute left to play in the third period, Bragin went all-in and replaced Suhachev with a field performer. The Swedes had to get pretty nervous, but the final assault did not bring tangible results - the fight went into overtime, which was akin to defeat for Russian hockey players.
It is natural that in extra time and in a series of post-match shootouts, it was the Scandinavians who showed great interest in the outcome of the confrontation. Thanks to a successful attempt by Oskar Steen, they extended their unbeaten streak in the main round of the World Cup to 44 matches, reaching the playoffs in modest Slovakia.
The Russian U20 national team lost in the shootout to Sweden - 3: 4 B. The youth team takes the third place in the group and in ¼ will meet with the US national team. The match will take place on January 3 at 04:00 (Moscow time).
More about how we scored and what saves Vladislav Sukhachev made: https://t.co/B22A3cZawc pic.twitter.com/ctd4NpEGDD
- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey)
Petersburg delegated to the youth team a record landing - six people. Goalkeeper Andrey Melnichuk, defenders Nikolai Knizhov and Vladislav Semin, forwards Mikhail Maltsev, Andrey Altybarmakyan, Alexey Polodyan. All of them are now registered in the VHL "SK-Neva" club. And all in the national team in the first roles.
True, at the start of the championship, they did not gain fame for themselves. Like the entire Russian team.
For a long time, the Czech national team at the youth championships has not been allowed beyond the living room. She last won gold in 2001. By the way, then the tournament was held in Russia. And since then, only once did the Slavs manage to cling to the medals - bronze.
Nobody expects anything from the Czech team this year either. Especially after Canadians smashed her 9: 0 in one of the exhibition games.
However, the Czechs are capable of some surprises. And, unfortunately, the Russians fell under their hot hand.
At first, however, ours looked down at the opponent. The Czechs scored, ours with apparent ease returned the course of events to the original source. By the way, it was Polodyan who became the author of the first goal of our team.
It seemed that already in the second period, Valery Bragin's wards would finally take over the advantage. But everything happened the other way around.
Errors in our zone began to multiply, and this led to two more goals against Melnichuk. From the beginning of the third period, he was replaced at the goal by Sukhachev, but this castling could not bring the team out of suspended animation.
However, in the end ours were close to the usual miracle. Having removed the goalkeeper one and a half minutes before the end of the period, they almost stole the victory from the Czechs.
That is, out of habit, having created problems for themselves, they then began to heroically solve them. Having confused the tournament situation at the very start, the Russians already in the quarterfinals can get to the favorites of the championship - the Americans, Canadians or Finns.
But Bragin found a way out and not from such dead ends.
Czech Republic - Russia - 5: 4 (2: 2, 2: 0, 1: 2)
- Goals: 1: 0 Nechash-1 (Kaut, Zadina, big, 04:42), 1: 1 Polodyan-1 (Altybarmakyan, Zaitsev, 05:21), 2: 1 Safin-1 (Khytil, Gayek, 07:28) , 2: 2 Sholokhov-1 (Kostin, Semin, 09:36), 3: 2 Zadina-1 (Kaut, Nechash, big, 25:34), 4: 2 Khytil-1 (Safin, Zakhar, 37:26 ), 5: 2 Kral-1 (Kaut, Galvash, 46:16), 5: 3 Kayumov-1 (Manukyan, Rubtsov, 57:48), 5: 4 Semin-1 (59:02)
- Goalkeepers: Korenarzh - Melnichuk (Sukhachev, 40:00, 58:26 - 59:02, 59:20)
Russia: Knizhov - Zaitsev, Altybarmakyan - Maltsev - Polodyan; Samorukov - Makeev, Sokolov - Rubtsov - Abramov; Shepelev - Minulin, Manukyan - Ivanov - Svechnikov; Semin - Elizarov, Kostin - Sholokhov - Kayumov
- Fine: 14 (4+4+6) - 8 (4+4+0)
World Youth Championship
Group A: USA, Canada, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland.
Group B: Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belarus.
Russian national team match schedule
* Start of matches Moscow time.
The 2018 World Youth Hockey Championship starts on December 26, 2017 and ends on January 5, 2018. The next drawing of the tournament, like last time, will take place in North America - in the American city of Buffalo. The leading ice hockey teams will come to the championship. The audience will see the teams of Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, USA - only 10 national teams. But only one of them will conquer the trophy of the 42nd edition of the championship.
Where and when the World Youth Hockey Championship 2018 will take place
Spectators will see the sports action from December 26, 2017 to January 5 next year. Hockey players will gather in the American city of Buffalo. They will have three modern sports complexes at their service: New Era Field, Kibank Center and Harbor Center.
Harbor Center
A multi-purpose complex that is widely used for exhibitions and concerts. The capacity is very low - 1,800. It seems that the organizers will seriously think about how to increase the number of seats.
"Cybank Center"
The home arena of the Buffalo Sabers, a local hockey team, with a capacity of 19,000 spectators. Both semifinal matches and the World Cup final will take place within the walls of the SC.
"New Era Field"
Huge football stadium in the open air, in the stands of which more than 71,000 fans can fit. But viewers shouldn't worry. The organizers are not going to freeze them the whole tournament at all. Only one match will be played on the New Era Field ice. But what - the USA vs Canada! The game will take place within the group stage.
The schedule of the hockey World Cup 2018 among youth teams
This is how the calendar of matches of the upcoming tournament looks like:
- 26 - 31 December 2017: group round;
- 2 january 2018: quarterfinals;
- The 25th of January: consolation round;
- 4 January: semi-final;
- 5 January: final and bronze medal match.
The consolation round should be mentioned separately. This is a three-match series of games, which is held up to 2 wins. It is where the two worst band members meet. The winner of the confrontation gets the opportunity to stay in the top division, and the loser is relegated to the league one level below.
Ice Hockey U20 World Championship 2018 Teams
The “hockey world championship” will be attended by 10 ice teams, staffed by players not older than 20 years. The organizers of the tournament have already divided them into two quintets.
Group A:
- Canada;
- Denmark;
- Slovakia;
- Finland.
One match each will take place at New Era Field and Harbor Center, and all the rest at Kibank Center.
Group B:
- Russia;
- Sweden;
- Czech;
- Switzerland;
- Belarus.
Hockey matches will be held on the ice of the Kibank Center and Harbor Center.
Russian national team at the World Youth Hockey Championship 2018
Our “young growth” will again try to win the gold medals of the competition. The schedule of games of the Russian national team in the group round of the World Cup is as follows:
- 26 december 2017: Russia - Czech Republic;
- December 28th: Russia - Switzerland;
- December 29th: Russia - Belarus;
- Dec. 31: Russia - Sweden.
The group is even. It is hard to imagine that the domestic squad will not be able to make it to the playoffs. The main opponents for the first place in the quintet are likely to be the Swedes and the Czechs.
Final of the World Cup 2018 in ice hockey among youth teams
It is difficult to predict who will qualify for the final. But if we turn to the statistics of recent years, the list of potential participants looks like this: Russia, Canada, USA, Finland and Sweden.
Canada
16-time winners of the competition. Especially a lot of gold was stamped by Maple Leaves in the mid-90s and 2000s. There is no doubt that the Canadians will try to bring the number of their victories to 17!
Russia
The patriotic squad can boast of 13 awards of the highest standard, 4 of which it won in the modern period. The last time our guys won gold was in 2011. Since then, Valery Bragin's charges have been very close to success. But so far they manage to take only silver and bronze.
Finland
The Suomi national team was the best 4 times. The last gold got them in 2016. It is noteworthy that already in the next edition, the Finns almost flew out of the elite division. So you don’t know what to expect from these weird Finnish guys ...
Sweden
The Scandinavians took the World Cup trophy only 2 times. Not too much for such a serious hockey country. But Tre Krunur has a chance to improve!
The tournament will take place in an American city. Therefore, there is no doubt that the US team - the winner of the 2017 World Cup - will tear and throw, supported by their native stands!
