OHL Sweeps the 2nd Leg

OHL Press Release

Andrew Agozzino of the hometown Niagara IceDogs scored the winning goal to help the OHL edge the Russian Selects 3-2 in Game 4 of the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge on Monday in St. Catharines.

After a scoreless first period, John Tavares of the Oshawa Generals opened the scoring 1:21 into the second period with his third goal of the series. P.K. Subban of the Belleville Bulls added a third period powerplay goal and Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires chipped in with a pair of assists in the win.

The win gave the OHL a sweep of their leg of the series after a 6-3 win in Guelph on Thursday. Tavares said that despite a full slate of games for the OHL players over the weekend, they used the energy from the crowd to pull out the win.

“We really fed off the crowd tonight; they were great,” Tavares said about playing in front of a rambunctious capacity crowd in St. Catharines. “It was a great atmosphere.”

Trevor Cann of the London Knights got the win after stopping 11 of 12 shots in relief of Mike Murphy of the Bulls, who allowed one goal on 17 shots in the first half of the game.

Nikita Klyukin and Pavel Chernov replied for the Russians, who dropped to 1-3 in the tournament despite being competitive in every game.

“They keep getting better and better,” Tavares said. “They are starting to understand the Canadian game a lot more and the game on the smaller surface. Obviously we knew that with the weekend they had off, they had a lot of jump and they definitely gave us a run today.”

Sergey Gayduchenko made 36 saves for Russia.

The win gave the OHL a sweep of this series and maintains its undefeated record in the six-year history of the event.

“I don’t think we stressed that too much before the game,” Subban said. “It’s more than enough to think about when you are playing for your country, especially Canada. Canada never loses and we never like to lose whether it’s an ADT game or an exhibition game or whatever. Just putting on that jersey and knowing that you are playing for a spot to play for your country at Christmas time is more than enough motivation.”

The ADT Canada-Russia Challenge concludes with a pair of games in the Western Hockey League. The Swift Current Broncos host Game 5 on Wednesday (7:00 p.m. on Rogers Sportsnet) before the series finale on Thursday in Prince Albert.

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)