Canada Keeps Russia Behind to Start World Juniors

In an extremely spirited contest to open up the World Juniors, 2015 tournament champs Canada beat Russia 5-3 at the Air Canada Centre on Monday evening.

Canada didn’t need much time to put up the first goal. At 3:11, Philippe Myers waited a split second with the puck until he could find an open lane. Luckily for him, Tyson Jost, one of the best players on Team Canada, broke through in the open slot and backhanded a hard shot over Washington Capitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov, giving Canada the 1-0.

Like Latvia in the earlier game, Russia managed to score on their second shot of the game, which came around the halfway mark. This time, Montreal Canadiens prospect Mikhail Sergachev scored his first ever official IIHF goal after sending a top-shelf snipe over Carter Hart and in for the 1-1 goal.

It was only a matter of time until the Canadians got a goal out of their top line, and Dylan Strome was there to get the job done. Back and ready to avenge Canada’s sixth place result in Finland a year ago, Strome converted on a one-timer from Matt Barzal from the high slot and beat Samsonov’s right pad, giving Canada the 2-1 advantage at 33:15 in the game.

A relentless forecheck by the Canadians saw the team in red and black take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. At 37:08, Nicholas Roy spun around and beat defenseman Vadim Kudako, who was trying to block the shot. The puck soared past Samsonov’s right pad and in to give Canada a two-goal advantage, a lead that would make Russia’s chances much harder.

Russia looked depleted after trailing 25-9 in shot after 40 minutes of action. It didn’t get better at the start of the period when Canada got a goal at 3:03 in the third. On Canada's 29th shot, Matt Barzal capitalised on a strong game by buzzing around the net and beating Samsonov, giving Canada the 4-1 lead.

But Russia scored one of their own. At 5:12 of the period, Kirill Kaprizov fired a wrist shot below Hart's glove and in to bring Russia back within two.

The back and forth continued. At 49:06 in the game, Strome got his second goal of the game after Barzal made a nifty pass in front of the net to the Erie Otters star, who sent a hard shot past Samsonov's left leg for the 5-2 lead.

But Russia wasn't done. At 50:36, a minute and a half later, Yegor Rykov sent the puck just inside the left post and beat Hart for the third time on 15 shots, bringing the game close again. It wouldn't matter in the end, though, as Canada would hold on long enough to take the 5-3 victory to open up the World Juniors.

Canada will not get a break in the action, with another 8:00 PM EST contest set for Tuesday night against Slovakia. Russia will also be back in action again, with an even earlier start time, 4:00 PM against Latvia.

Follow me on Twitter, @StevenEllisNHL.

Photos from Anders Marshall/EuroHockey.com

 

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