Subway Super Series. Team QMJHL - Russia U20 - 2:3

The sixth and deciding match of the 2014 Subway Super Series was played between Team QMJHL and the junior Russian national team during the night. The score in the series was 3:2 in Russia’s favour before the start of the game, with our team beating Team WHL 3:2 on penalty shots and then by the same score in normal time, thrashing Team OHL 4:0 before going down 1:5, and the previous defeat against the QMJHL 1:3 set up a winner takes all clash in Rimouski.

SKA goaltender Igor Shestyorkin was selected to be in net, and he had to make some alert early saves despite it being a quiet beginning to proceedings. Both teams looked to be waiting for each other to make the first mistake, and that error eventually came from the Canadians as forward Ivan Fishchenko was completely open to fire home on the doorstep, feeding off a pass from young SKA player Alexander Dergachyov.

Every team that has scored first in this series has gone on to win, and Russia set about carrying on that trend, as early into the second Vladimir Bryukvin sent a spinning wrist shot over the goalkeeper’s glove from the high slot. Incidentally Alexander Dergachyov got the only assist on that marker. The game was under complete control now, and Vyacheslav Lyshchenko made it three when he took up a rebound off the right hand boards and caught the netminder unawares – SKA defenceman Mikhail Tikhonov also got a point on that play.

That lead was almost entirely wiped out in the third stanza though. Team QMJHL started pressing to get back in the game with a lot more intensity, and a deflected Nicolas Meloche wrister from the point beat Igor Shestyorkin. Not long later with a man’s advantage Anthony Deluca tipped in a dish from the right to make it a one goal game, but Russia stood firm to hold on for a 3:2 victory, and a 4:2 Subway Super Series triumph overall winning by 11 points to 7!

How SKA players performed in the series overall:

Igor Shestyorkin – 5 matches, 94.9% save percentage, 1 shutout;

Dmitry Yudin – 6 matches, 3 points (1+2);

Mikhail Tikhonov – 5 matches, 1 point (0+1);

Alexander Dergachyov - (6 matches, 2 points (0+2).

Match protocol:

Team QMJHL – Russia U20 – 2:3 (0:1, 0:2, 2:0)

Goals:

0:1 Fishchenko (Bryukvin, Dergachyov), 16.06

0:2 Bryukvin (Dergachyov), 24.12

0:3 Leshchenko (Tikhonov, Okulov), 29.33

1:3 Meloche (Labbe), 47.11

2:3 Deluca (Perron, Carrier), 52.31

Goalkeepers: Desrosiers – Shestyorkin

Shots: 27 - 21

Penalty minutes: 10 – 10

20.11.2014. Rimouski, Canada.