RUSSIA CLAIMS FIFTH WITH ROUT OF GERMANY

CAMROSE, AB – Stanislav Bocharov had a hat trick and Kirill Kabanov added a goal and two assists as Russia claimed fifth place at the 2008 World Junior A Challenge with an 8-2 win over Germany on Saturday.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alexander Burmistrov, Sergey Chvatov and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Russians, who continued to slide down the final WJAC standings – they won bronze in 2006 and finished fourth last year.

Despite the lopsided loss it was the Germans who hit the board first just 90 seconds after the opening face-off, as Jerome Flaake blasted a slapshot under the arm of Russian goaltender Dmitry Shikin for the early 1-0 lead.

The Russian offence took over after that, scoring four times before the first period was over and twice more in the second before Tarasenko and Kabanov scored in the final frame put the cap on the win.

Steven Rupprich scored Germany’s second goal on a third-period powerplay.

Although they came out on the short end, the Germans actually held a sizable advantage in shots on goal at 40-27. Shikin made 12 saves in his 20 minutes of work, while Eduard Reyzvikh, who replaced Shikin to begin the second period, turned away 26 the rest of the way.

Vladimir Malinovsky added two assists for Russia in the win.

Germany finished sixth at the World Junior A Challenge for the second-consecutive year, and has never finished higher than fifth in the tournament’s three-year history.