Big win for Team Russia in their first game

In the first game in Group B played in Znojmo, Russia won 6-1 over Latvia. The Russian side had chances all game long, while Latvia had a few as well. Team Latvia managed to score one goal in the last period. Leading the Russian offence was Danil Zharkov with one goal and two assists.

The first game played in Znojmo was between Latvia and Russia, and the team from the largest country in the world didn’t start well. They were penalised a few times, giving Latvia some good opportunities to attack. But then an unexpected shot came from Bogdan Yakimov and the Russians went into the lead.

After the first goal by Team Russia, the Latvians were not as active as their opponent. That all peaked with the next goal scored by Russia. The goal was scored by Arseni Khatsei and confirmed by the video goal judge after a Latvian protest.

The Latvians were seemed shocked by the score and played very cautiously. The Russians were all over the ice and their game was much better than that of Latvia. The first period was completely under Russian control.

The second period started with a huge impact by Russians. It took them only 72 seconds to score a power-play goal. Danil Zharkov threw the puck toward the Latvian goalie, who wasn´t expecting it and didn’t make a move to stop it.

It only took three minutes to score another Russian goal, and it was shorthanded, as Nikita Zadorov took advantage of two-on-one break.

The Russian team was all over the place and its players were in the attacking zone for a plenty of time. But Team Russia sometimes forgot to take care of its back door. The Latvians had a few outnumbered situations, but they weren´t good at capitalising on their chances.

Latvia had one superb chance to score when Edgars Kulda and Georgs Golovkovs had a two-man breakaway, facing only the goalie. But Vasilevski didn’t even have to make a save because a bad pass by Golovkovs ruined the opportunity.

At the beginning of the third period, the Latvians were still not able to score a goal. But Russians were. In 42nd minute, Vyacheslav Osnovin pounced on a rebound from Zharkov’s shot. Merzlikins had absolutely no chance to save the rebound shot.

Six minutes later, Anton Slepyshev shot from the left side and the puck ended up in the net for the sixth Russian goal of the game. But then the Russian forwards stopped scoring and the big moment for Latvia came.

It was in the 53rd minute when Georgs Golovkovs shot beautifully and Vasilevski had no chance to save it. All members of Team Latvia celebrated the goal. They deserved it.

Goalie Elvis Merzlikins said after the game, “We played badly. We want to stay in "A" category of U18 championship ”

Russian forward Danil Zharkov was happier afterward. “We just deserved to win and we did what our coach told us. It ended with a good result,” said the young forward who scored once and added two assists.