Thursday, December 26, 2013

Vasilevski ties two records in 11-0 win

Press Release

The second line of Vyacheslav Osnovin-Alexander Barabanov-Damir Zhafyarov accounted for three of those goals.

As well, goalie Andrei Vasilevski tied two all-time U20 records in this opening game. Merely by playing in it he tied 14 goalies for most career U20 tournaments with three. And, his shutout put him in more exclusive company. Only Slovakia’s Jaroslav Halak has as many career shutouts as Vasilevki (four).

"We just tried to play the game as if the score was close the whole time or as if we were playing Canada or Sweden," said Mikhail Grigorenko, who finished with a goal and two assists. The 12th overall draft choice in 2012 had played only sparingly with the Buffalo Sabres and was loaned to the Russian team for the tournament.

"I wasn't playing much there, and it's always an honour to play for your country," he added.

Osnovin opened the scoring at 5:03 when he took a quick feed from Barabanov behind the net. Just 83 seconds later defenceman Nikita Zadorov ripped a wrist shot past goalie Henrik Haukeland, and eleven seconds after that Zhafyarov converted a two-on-one with Osnovin. Zhafyarov also finished with a goal and three points.

The Russian defence combined for three goals and five assists in the game.

Two goals later in the period put the game well out of reach, but credit goes to the impressive Malmo crowd which showed its appreciation by giving the Norwegians a nice round of applause any time they came up with a decent shift or chance on goal (which, unfortunately, wasn’t that often).

The Russians added another fiver in the middle period on a variety of plays. There was Vadim Khlopotov’s shot from the slot off a nice pass from Bogdan Yakimov, Anton Slepyshev’s superb one-timer on the power play, and Zadorov’s clear shot after skating into a scoring position.

Slepyshev added his second of the game for the only goal of the final period.


 (Nathan can be reached at nathanfournier@mainehockeyjournal.com)

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