Russian Hockey Prospects WJC reports and news

Mikhail Grigorenko is arguably the best 1994 born player in Russia. He plays with the 1993 national team and has played in this summer's Ivan Hlinka Tournament, playing against 1992 born players.
In the latest World Under-17 Hockey Challenge he scored six goals and ten points in six games, and Team Russia finished the tournament at the fourth place.
In this interview given to Russian website allhockey.ru he talked about his performances with the national teams, about his future plans and he also replied to some personal questions.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

St. Louis Blues' Russian prospect Nikolay Lemtyugov has been traded from Severstal Cherepovets to Ak Bars Kazan.

The former Peoria Rivermen's player has been sent to Severstal for the quick winger Evgeny Ketov, who disappointed in Kazan after being brought there from Lada Togliatti.

Nikolay Lemtyugov scored this year nine goals and twenty-three points in 39 regular season matches, being -1 and gettin an average ice time of about fifteen minutes a game.

Just a week ago Ak Bars got Hannes Hyvonen from Dynamo Minsk.

Habs' prospect Alexander Avtsin was surprisingly left off the Russian WJC squad and in this interview appeared on Sports.ru he discussed the WJC outcome, tried examinating the reasons of his exclusion from the team and admitted that he could have been useful for the Russians.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of the interview with Avtsin.

The debate around team Russia WJC disaster goes on. Right after the team's return in Russia many stories hit the media, the most interesting regarding Nikita Filatov and Vladimir Plyuschev relations. As we examined earlier in the Top 5 reasons why Russia failed at WJC it looks like there have been a conflict between the coach and the captain.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you the most interesting quotes from a good sum-it-up article appeared at Bleacher report.

Team Russia's sixth place at the last WJC in Saskatchewan, Canada, was nothing short of a failure. It was the worst result of the team since 2001, when the team lead by Petr Vorobiev couldn't get any better than the seventh place on the home soil. That team, just like this one, wasn't short of talent, considering that the team's front men were the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Anton Volchenkov and Denis Grebeshkov.
This year's roster included many talented players as well, like Nikita Filatov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Dmitri Orlov and others, but the tournament didn't really finish like expected and team Russia was left out of the medal round after five straight apparitions.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you top five reasons why Russia failed at WJC 2010.

Losing 4-3 against team Finland in the fifth place deciding game, Plyuschev's team Russia got their second straight defeat and finished the World Junior Championships at a very disappointing sixth place, the worst result since 2001.

This year's team Russia performed badly throughout the whole tournament, and the match against Finland was no different. Ramis Sadikov started between the pipes, with Igor Bobkov being iced after twenty-sixth minutes.

The first period counted three goals: Maxim Trunev opened the score, while Teemu Eronen made it 1-1 with the man advantage at the sixteenth. All the four Finn goals will be scored while on the powerplay. With only twenty-three seconds to play, Alexander Burmistrov scored the go-ahead goal for the Russians.

During the second period Plyuschev subbed Sadikov with Bobkov, which allowed a goal to the Finns ninety seconds to the second horn.

The third period decided the game. With a double man advantage Jyri Niemi made it 3-2, but Burmistrov scored his second goal of the game to tie it up once again. At the fifty second minute team Russia was caught with too many men on the ice and the Finns spoiled the chance getting the game winning goal with Edmonton Oilers' prospect Teemu Hartikainen.

In the dying seconds Plyuschev recalled Bobkov on the bench for the extra-attacker, but the desperation move didn't work and thus the Finns could celebrate a well deserved win.

With a determinated performance and some help from luck, Team Switzerland knocked out Team Russia at the World Junior Championships. The Swiss will face Team Canada tomorrow at the tournament's semi-finals.

This was definitely not Team Russia's best game and it showed already during the first period, in which Plyuschev's team wasn't really dangerous until the sixteenth minute, when Vladimir Tarasenko hit the post after a breakaway launched by a great pass by Maxim Chudinov.

In the second period Igor Bobkov stood up and made some good saves to rescue the result, but after eight minutes Michaël Loichat scored the go-away goal for Switzerland, surprising the crowd at the Credit Union Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Team Russia tried to react, failing to capitalize the bigger number of moments. But after a big save by Benjamin Conz on Nikita Filatov something happened for Plyuschev guys.

Maxim Kitsyn got a good puck in the offensive zone and served Tarasenko without thinking twice. The Russian Number 10 lifted the puck over Swiss goalie Benjamin Conz in style and tied it up at the 38th minute.

Just a bunch of seconds later Filatov fed nicely the rushing Kirill Petrov right in front of Conz and that was an easy chance for the Islanders prospect, who scored the go-ahead goal.

In the third period Russia relaxed and controlled the match. Just like last year's during the semifinals, team Russia allowed a key late goal: 2010 eligible Nino Niederreiter fired the puck from the blue line, the shot hit defenseman Nikita Zaitsev and went in past Igor Bobkov, sending the game to the overtime.

Russia controlled the flow of the game for most of the extra period, but there were chances for both teams and Bobkov was rather busy. Once again though team Russia lacked the concentration to finish up the plays and with only twelve seconds to the final horn another shot by Nino Niederreiter has been deflected in and that meant that Russia will have to play for a hugely disappointing fifth place on Monday, while Switzerland will try to surprise Canada too tomorrow in the WJC semi-finals.

After finishing the group stage with nine points in four games, Team Russia earned the second seed of the B Group and thus is going to face in the World Junior Championships quarterfinals the third seed of the A group, team Switzerland, who managed to skate past Slovakia 4-1 despite being without their top two defensemen, Luca Sbisa and Roman Josi.

The game is scheduled for Saturday, January 2nd at 4 PM local time.

In the last two group stage games Team Russia faced Team Sweden and Team Czech Republic. The match against Tre Kronor wasn't good for Plyuschev's guys, as they were down 2-0 already after the first period. During the second period Team Russia tried to react and scored a goal with Kirill Petrov, but it wasn't enough as Team Sweden added a further marker in any period to finish the match 4-1.

In the very last group stage match Team Russia downed Team Czech Republic. The game's breaker was Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored a double and added one assist in Plyuschev's squad 5-2 victory. Tarasenko himself opened the score in the first period after a beautiful combination between Maxim Trunev and Alexander Burmistrov. Kirill Petrov doubled the advantage for Team Russia in the second period, who allowed a powerplay breakaway to Jan Kana at the thirty-sixth minute that meant the 2-1. The third period was quite until the 54th minute mark, when Stepan Novotny tied up the match.

But less than one minute later Vladimir Tarasenko took control of a loose puck in the neutral zone, launched Maxim Kitsyn, who returned him the puck seconds later. After a couple of strides Tarasenko shoot the puck in and scored with an eye-catching wrist shot.

Team Russia added a couple of goals later, first with Maxim Chudinov and then with Alexander Burmistrov.

The winner of the quarterfinal match will face Team Canada in the semifinals on January 3rd.

With a phenomenal performance and 46 saves, goalkeeper Igor Bobkov left no way out to Finland as they couldn't score for the whole game despite a complete control of the match for more than two periods. Finland's inability to convert chances into goals costed them the game as Team Russia walked away with a comfortable 2-0 win in World Junior Championships' second match. Plyuschev team's now tops Group B ranking, sharing the lead with Sweden, with six points in two matches.

In spite of Bobkov's one-man show, Nikita Filatov has been elected as player of the game for Team Russia. He did play a great game, assisting on Petr Khokhryakov's first goal of the night and scoring himself the second one with a rocket-like shot from the blue line.

Team Russia's start was quite good as they got the go-ahead goal after six minutes only, when Petr Khokhryakov deflected in a superb pass from Nikita Filatov after a quick counterattack sparkled by Kirill Petrov. After this goal they held back and Finland started controlling the game rather easily, but without getting the puck past Bobkov. The referees were busy tonight as they whistled a combined total of 50 penalty minutes and this spoiled the flow of the game especially on the second and third periods.

Midway through the game Nikita Filatov, with the man advantage, made it a 2-0 game with a great blue line shot after a pass by Maxim Chudinov.

The rest of the match was pretty much a Finland vs Bobkov show, with the latter getting the victory, stealing the match for his team with a huge 46 saves performances.

Team Russia's next game is scheduled for tomorrow against Team Sweden.

2010 eligible Evgeny Kuznetsov scored two goals, Kirill Petrov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Maxim Chudinov and Maxim Trunev contributed with one goal each as Russia downed Austria 6-2 in WJC first game for both teams. The match was pretty much decided after the first period as Russia was up 4-1 after the goals scored by Trunev, Chudinov, Kuznetsov, Tarasenko, this last one was particularly eye-catching. Team's captain Nikita Filatov has been silent and left out the score sheet.

Plyuschev's team didn't had their best game even if they controlled the flow of the game with relative ease thanks to its forward's superior skating, probably they tried to save energy for the upcoming matches. Goalkeeper Igor Bobkov stopped 14 shots, but he wasn't really responsible in any of the goals he allowed.

The defense's game wasn't really spot-on, but Washington Capitals' prospect Dmitry Orlov had two assists, Maxim Chudinov scored two points (one goal and one assist) and both players logged big minutes and were the most noticeable among blue liners.

Read Russianprospects.com's article for a complete game report and scouting notes.

Team Russia's next match will be played on Monday against Team Finland.

The latest winner of the Rookie of the week award, Alexander Avtsin, during an interview published on KHL official site, talked about his first goals in pro hockey, about the upcoming WJC and about his plans for the next season.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation:

20 years old Sergei Andronov has been traded from financially troubled Lada Togliatti to CSKA Moscow. Andronov, who has under his belt a golden medal from the U18 WJC and a silver medal from the U20 WJC, has been drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the third round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, with the 78th overall pick. This is what he declared to Komsomolskaya Pravda:

Andronov: "It's sad to leave Togliatti, I spent here the last six years and here I became a pro. Unfortunately nowadays it looks like Lada's management don't care about the team. We don't recieve a salary for three months, and they always promise that they are going to refund our debts. And thus I decided for myself, I don't believe to promises anymore. I plan to sign a contract with CSKA Moscow, I'm very familiar with their head coach, Sergei Nemchinov, I played under him in the National Junior Team. In my new team I want to get more playing time."

The same Nemchinov yesterday declared to Sovietskiy Sport:

Nemchinov: "Andronov is an excellent forward. I enjoyed working with him during last year's World Junior Championships."