Sunday, December 26, 2010
Switzerland Skates Past Germany 4-3 + BONUS VIDEO
Sweden Steamrolls past Norway, 7-1
Buffalo - After a slow start, including the late arriving crowd, Canada started the 2011 World Junior Championship with a 6-3 win over Russia Sunday afternoon at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.
The first period was riddled with turnovers and a lack of sustained offensive pressure by both teams. Even when Russia opened the scoring as Maxim Kitsyn tipped in Yuri Urychev's one-timer from the circle just 3:57 into the game, there seemed to be a complete lack of urgency for the Canadians. It was evident nerves were playing a big part in the start of this game. Instead of focusing on the puck, guys were chasing big time hits...maybe in an effort to shake away the nervous energy.
With 2:05 left in the first period, Marcus Foligno scored off the rebound of Louis LeBlanc's point shot on the power play. Despite a flat start and the inability to sustain any sort of offensive pressure in the first 20 minutes of the game, they were heading to the locker room tied at one.
The second period, started out just as flat as the first, but mid-way through, Ryan Ellis unleashed a bomb from the blueline that bounced off the end boards and hit goaltender Igor Bobkov on the back side and crossed the goal line to give Canada the 2-1 lead. It was short lived though as Nikita Dvurechenski sent a lazy wrister on net from the top of the circles that beat Olivier Roy five hole. It was a shot he saw all the way and should have saved. In the fluky goal department, they were even as the game was tied at two.
Three minutes later Canada would jump ahead once again with another rocket from the blueline. This time it was Erik Gudbranson with a shot that happened so fast, Bobkov didn't even see it go by him.
Once again, Russia responded just a minute and a half later when Danil Sobchenko tapped in a rebound to even the score at three.
While the Russians played with tremendous team defense, blocking shots and clearing rebounds away from the crease and while the Canadians seemed to find a bit more of their offensive swagger as the game wore on, big hits would be a running theme throughout this game as more and more players found themselves on their backside due to strong body checks.
In the third period, Canada took control of the game. Clearly...the nerves were gone.
Ryan Johnasen scored on the power play off a ping pong type play as the puck bounced around in the slot and was able to sneak it over Bobkov's shoulder. Less than three minutes later, Brayden Shenn scored again on the power play, this time by going hard to the net and in the final minute of the game, in a complete lack of concentration by Bobkov, Curtis Hamilton scored off the faceoff to make it a 6-3 final in Buffalo as the puck tipped off his glove, into the air and over the goal line.
Canada will face the Czech Republic on Tuesday, December 28th at 4pm ET. Russia will face Sweden Tuesday, December 28th at 7pm ET.
-- Julie Robenhymer
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@JulieRobenhymer on twitter for live updates from Buffalo.
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