2010 U18 WJC: Russia routs Latvia 9-0 (Photo © iihf.com)
In the second day of the 2010 U18 WJC Team Russia faced Team Latvia and easily beaten them with a score of 9-0. Head Coach Mikhail Vasiliev decided to give Sergei Kostenko a rest and thus 94-born Andrei Vasilevski started between the pipes.
In the first period team Russia got the early lead with young defenseman Nikita Nesterov during a powerplay. Two minutes later, at the seventh minute, Vladislav Namestnikov gave team Russia a two goals lead.
In the second period team Russia pushed the gas and scored four unanswered goals. Team Russia’s captain Evgeny Kuznetsov made it a 3-0 game, then Namestnikov added other two goals to complete his hat-trick. After the fifth goal Latvia changed the goalie and iced Kristers Gudlevskis, but after seven minutes Grigori Zheldakov scored once again to put Russia up by six goals. Namestnikov assisted this powerplay goal.
On the third period Kuznetsov scored other two goals and got a hat-trick too giving Russia a 8-0 lead. 93-born Maxim Shalunov at the fifty-seventh scored the ninth goal of the game.
Vasilievski finished the match with 18 saves.
so far so good. Lets keep it rolling boys
Hello Igor, thanks for your comment. I have faith in this team and in the head coach Mikhail Vasiliev. We’ll see I guess. Go Russia
I have gotten through my dissapointment about the olympics and happy too see that the young russians are doing a good job.
Do you know,Alessandro, if talent development is back on track in Russia?(Compared to the times before 1990)
From what I see on the IIHF website Russia have built about 80 new rinks the last 5 years or so.Do they still build new rinks at the same pace and how many do they plan to build?(hard Qs to answer maybe?)
I can’t give you exact figures, but they built a lot of new rinks in the latest 5-6 years. They also organized new teams too, just look at the Vyschaya Liga and at what it is now, it’s a lot improved over the years.
The talent development seems to be back, yes. We didn’t have good 87-88-89 years, 90 was very good and 91-92-93 seem even better. We’ll see 94, it doesn’t look as good as those three, but there are two very good players Mikhail Grigorenko, I’ve translated an interview with him here and Vasilievski who is already in NT 2 years older than him. There are other players too, but we’ll see if they will be special.
Thanks Alessandro.
Looking forward to see new russian talents
Allesandro,
I am glad to hear that there has been a major increase in the construction of new indoor arenas. Obviously, this is a crucial step toward the expansion of young talent available for national teams, the KHL, etc. I would like to follow up on that point by asking about the availability of outdoor ice? While I realize that you can’t develop talented young players without giving them access to indoor arenas eventually, I would guess that most Russian kids who become good players first learned to skate outdoors.
In an interview that you did last year with Yevgeny Dadonov, he recalled that he learned to skate while growing up in Chelyabinsk at age 3 on the “yard rinks.” Does the term “yard rink” have a common meaning or understanding in Russia? I took it to mean that apartment buildings and other places of residence flooded their yards to create skating rinks in the winter. Also, do public parks offer skating rinks in the winter? If a kid wants to skate in Russia, is it easy or hard to find outdoor ice to practice the basic skills?