Subway Super Series. Russia U20 - Team OHL - 4:0

During the early hours of today the junior Russian national team played its third match of the Subway Super Series against Team OHL. Four SKA players were all included in the line-up: goaltender Igor Shestyorkin, defencemen Dmitry Yudin and Mikhail Tikhonov, and forward Alexander Dergachyov.

The opening stages were played at a frightening pace, with barely any stoppages being seen during the initial 20 minutes of play. The Russians, despite defending extremely solidly, didn’t get much offense going with only four shots on target, and had to rely on netminder Igor Shestyorkin to bail them out on several occasions.

That all changed though in the second stanza. A lightning breakaway saw Konstantin Okulov fed at the left hand post, and with the goalkeeper out of position he made no mistake. That really shook the Canadians up, and on the powerplay Rushan Rafikov smashed home a heavy slap shot from the point. Just over two minutes later Nikita Shatskiy had all the time in the world on the right faceoff circle to pick his spot, and then on a five on three Vladimir Bryukvin finished from the doorstep to practically finish the contest there.

Playing the third period out was always going to be a formality and that’s exactly how it turned out, with Igor Shestyorkin keeping his shutout intact as the hosts gave up the ghost, taking penalty after penalty. None of those were scored on, but it mattered little as Russia powered to a 4:0 triumph over Team OHL!

Match protocol:

Russia U20 – Team OHL – 4:0 (0:0, 4:0, 0:0)

Goals:

1:0 Okulov (Tolchinskiy, Shatskiy), 22.16

2:0 Rafikov (Yudin, Fishchenko), 32.27

3:0 Shatskiy (Tolchinskiy, Gavrikov), 34.28

4:0 Bryukvin (Rafikov, Yudin), 39.42

Goalkeepers: Shestyorkin – Martin

Shots: 26 – 25

Penalty minutes: 22 – 37

13.11.2014. Peterborough, Canada.