2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge

RUSSIA SCORES THREE IN THIRD TO TOP CANADA RED, ADVANCE TO U17 SEMIS

DAVID BRIEN

LAMBTON SHORES, Ont. – Dmitry Sokolov scored twice and added an assist in the decisive third period as Russia scored three times in the final 20 minutes to beat Canada Red 4-1 and advance to Friday’s semifinals at the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

Russia will face Finland in a rematch of one of the most exciting games of the preliminary round; on Monday, the Russians erased a 4-0 deficit in the final 13 minutes before the Finns escaped with a 5-4 shootout win.
German Rubtsov and Maxim Bain joined Sokolov as Russian goal scorers, while Maxim Kalyayev turned in a masterful performance in the Russian goal, finishing with 38 saves.

Sean Day (Toronto, Ont./Mississauga, OHL) scored the lone Canadian goal.

It was Canada Red who struck first; Logan Brown (Carleton Place, Ont./Windsor, OHL) fed Day for a one-timer on a Canadian power play, exciting the capacity crowd at The Shores Recreation Centre.

But Russia drew even midway through the period when Nikita Makeyev stormed into the Canadian zone and dropped a pass for Rubtsov, who went forehand to backhand before lifting a shot over the glove of Canadian netminder Dylan Wells (St. Catharines, Ont./Peterborough, OHL).

Russia came storming out of the gate in the third period, scoring three times before the eight-minute mark.

Just 2:40 into the final frame, Pavel Ryzhenkov kept the puck in at the Canadian blue-line and found Sokolov, who went top shelf with a wrist shot to break the deadlock.

Sokolov struck again at 5:27, his fifth goal of the tournament, finishing off a tic-tac-toe play with Alexander Podkorytov and Rubtsov earning the assists.

Just 99 seconds later, Sokolov entered the Canadian zone down the right wing, toe-dragged around a defenceman and fed the puck over to Bain, who hammered in the 4-1 goal.

Canada Red put Wells on the bench for an extra attacker with more than five minutes left, but couldn’t generate any offence against Kalyayev and the Russian defence.

The Canadians outshot Russia in every period, finishing with a 39-25 advantage overall.

Canada Red will be back on the ice Friday night at The Shores Recreation Centre, meeting Canada White in an all-Canadian fifth-place game (7 p.m. ET).