Russia and Czech Republic got wins in last preparation game day before WJC

23 Dec 2012 | Roman Solovyev

Russian and Czech both scored 7 goals and earned victories in last game day before the start of WJC.

Czech 7-2 Germany

Czech Republic opened the Game Day with easy victory over Germany. Dmitrij Jaskin pulled ahead his team at 47 seconds of the game. Czech consistently win all three periods 2:0 in 1^st(Jaskin, Sidlik); 2:1 in the 2^nd (Sedlak, Hyka – Latta), and 3:1 in the 3^rd (Sedlak, Frk, Hertl – Ketterer). German goalie Marvin Cupper only yesterday got his baggage that was lost in Ufa when team arrived to Russia.

“I got my baggage only yesterday and had only one practice before it”, Cupper said R-Sport. “Our goal is not relegated from Top Division that’s why we need to win 1-2 games”.

German general manager Michael Pfuhl said that when they had problems with their hockey stuff. “They gave us a goalie coach of Salavat Yulayev youth team, with him we could work on both nets. He made his job really well”.

Head coach of Czech team Miroslav Prerost said for team is not easy to use to the difference in time between Russia and Czech. “We’re only three days here, had several practice. We need to adopt this difference”.

“Cold weather is made afraid our guys, I guess they never have been at such cold” said forward Dmitrij Jaskin.

Russia 7-5 Suisse

It was unbelievable to see after 30 minutes of the game that Suisse leads 5-4 against Russia! But in fact Russia got a win with 7-5 score. In first period people at the arena have seen 8 goals (Kucherov, Khokhlachyov, Yarullin, Yakupov – Hachler, Bertshy, Martschini, Bertaggia). In the second Russia changed their goalies, Andrei Vasilevsky replaced Andrei Makarov. First real chance Suisse turned to the goal by Christoph Bertschy. But end of the period Russia won with two goals from Maxim Shalunov and Mikhail Grigorenko. The final score was set by Nikita Kucherov at the end of 3^rd period.

“We had 25 players in squad, we need to cut 2 players. We have three variants what to do, also there is a variant to stay with 7 D and 13 F. Tomorrow we will unveil our final decision” said Russian head coach Mikhail Varnakov.

“We could be satisfied with our performance at this game. We played like a team and had a chance to win the game, but we still need to improve our acts on the ice. Our aim is to play in QF, but the main goal is to stay in top-division” Berstchy said R-Sport.

WJC starts December, 26 in Ufa with four games.