2007-08 National Men's Under-18 Team

CANADA FALLS TO RUSSIA IN GROUP A SHOWDOWN

KAZAN, Russia – Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team saw their dreams of a bye to the semi-finals at the 2008 IIHF World Under-18 Championship dashed on Wednesday, as they fell 4-2 to Russia in preliminary round play.

The Canadians need to look back only to 2003 for inspiration, however – Canada lost to Russia in the preliminary round in Yaroslavl, Russia before running the table in the playoff round, winning three games to take home their first, and only, world championship.

Leading 2-1 midway through the second period on Wednesday, Canada watched the Russians scored three unanswered goals to pull out the victory and remain undefeated.

“We played well for the first 10 minutes (of the second period), and then things started to change,” said Canadian head coach Pat Quinn. “We were playing with patience and had good positioning, and then the Russians started to win the one-on-one battles, which is something you usually expect from Canadian players. We started taking too many chances, and ended up out of position. We had to rely on our goaltender, and ended up beating ourselves.”

In front of a pro-Russian crowd of close to 10,000 at Tatneft Arena, the game was a chippy affair through the first 20 minutes, with a combined 45 minutes in penalties handed out to the two teams – including a major penalty and game misconduct to Russian star Nikita Filatov.

After a scoreless first, the Russians struck just 3:21 into the second period, as Dmitri Kugryshev beat Canadian goaltender Jake Allen (Fredericton, NB/St. John’s, QMJHL) with a backhand just under the crossbar.

The Canadians responded just eight minutes later, as Ryan Ellis’ (Freelton, ON/Windsor, OHL) point shot eluded Russian netminder Alexander Pechurskiy on a two-man advantage, and took the lead just two minutes after that on a goal from Matthew Duchene (Haliburton, ON/Brampton, OHL).

Looking to take their one-goal lead into the second intermission, Canada gave the Russians a late powerplay and Andrey Loktionov converted with the man advantage to pull the tournament hosts even heading into the final period.

The momentum from Loktionov’s tying goal carried over to the third period, as Russia outshot Canada 14-7 over the final 20 minutes, and took the lead for good on a goal from Evgeni Grachev at the 7:43 mark.

Pavel Chernov rounded out the scoring with just 4:25 remaining on the clock and the Canadians could not come back, despite holding the man advantage for the final 2:55.

Allen made 29 saves in a losing cause for Canada and picked up his team’s Player of the Game award.

“I knew it was going to be a tough game for us and that I had to come out strong,” Allen said. “It was fun and exciting to play in front of a packed house today. It was probably the loudest arena I’ve ever played in my junior career.”

Despite the loss, Allen says the Canadians were pleased with their game, and are excited about what is to come.

“Today was a big step towards our pursuit for the gold. We really pushed hard and brought our game up. We are looking forward to the quarterfinals.”

The loss means that Canada will have to play a quarterfinal game on Sunday against a team from Group B – one of Finland, Switzerland or the USA.

They wrap up preliminary round play on Friday when they face Slovakia (7:30 a.m. ET/4:30 a.m. PT), a game that can be seen live on TSN/RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada.

TSN/RDS will also have coverage of the playoff round through the gold medal game on Wednesday, April 23rd. Check your local listings for more information.

1

2

3

Final

0

2

2

4

0

2

0

2

Goals/Buts :
None/Aucun

Penalties/Pénalités :
04:18 CAN Hamonic (Roughing/Rudesse)
04:18 CAN Schenn (Roughing/Rudesse)
04:18 CAN Nemisz (Roughing/Rudesse)
04:18 RUS Kugryshev (Roughing/Rudesse)
04:18 RUS Lazarev (Roughing/Rudesse)
04:18 RUS Chudinov (Roughing/Rudesse)
06:24 RUS Petrov (Elbowing/Donner du coude)
09:07 CAN Lagace (Charging/Assaut)
13:33 RUS Filatov (Butt-Ending/Harponner)
13:33 RUS Filatov (Game Misconduct/Inconduite du match)
19:35 RUS Kulemin (Hooking/Accrocher)
20:00 CAN Hall (Tripping/Trébucher)

Goals/Buts :
23:21 RUS Kugryshev (Kulemin, Chernov)
31:36 CAN Ellis (Hodgson, Hall) PP2
33:44 CAN Duchene (Robak, Ellis)
39:10 RUS Loktionov (Petrov)

Penalties/Pénalités :
24:20 RUS Lazarev (Hooking/Accrocher)
25:35 CAN Cuma (Boarding/Donner de la bande)
31:03 RUS Biryukov (Hooking/Accrocher)
31:20 RUS Kulikov (Delay of Game/Retardé le jeu)
34:12 CAN Trivino (Holding/Retenir)
37:55 CAN Scandella (Kneeing/Donner du genou)
39:58 CAN Hamonic (Roughing/Rudesse)
39:58 RUS Biryukov (Roughing/Rudesse)

Goals/Buts :
47:43 RUS Grachev (Kulemin)
55:35 RUS Chernov (Raisov)

Penalties/Pénalités :
40:25 CAN Teubert (Tripping/Trébucher)
41:00 CAN Myers (Charging/Assaut)
45:34 RUS Yarchuk (Diving/Plonger)
49:20 CAN McMillan (Boarding/Donner de la bande)
52:38 RUS Biryukov (Elbowing/Donner du coude)
57:05 RUS Loktionov (Interference/Obstruction)
58:18 RUS Grachev (Holding/Retenir)