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After two scoreless shootout rounds, Russia’s Ruslan Iskhakov and Canada’s Joe Veleno went head-to-head for two straight rounds to determine the opening game of the Bratislava Group. Both shooters scored in their first attempts, but only Ishkakov was successful in the fourth round, giving his team the extra point.
Veleno scored the shootout’s first goal with a nice move on Russian goalie Amir Miftakhov, bringing Iskhakov to centre ice, needing to score to prolong the game. He pulled off an even nicer move, faking to his right and then pulling the puck to his left and sliding it behind Canadian goalie Alexis Gravel.
“The first one, I asked our goalie and one of our coaches what I should do, and they said this,” Iskhakov recalled. His teammates obviously had confidence he could pull off such a move, because most players couldn’t.
With the teams tied 1-1 after three rounds, the shooting order was reversed for Round 4, and Russian coach Alexander Zybin chose Iskhakov to shoot again immediately after his goal. Would he dare try to see if lightning could strike twice, or would he try something else?
“The next one I didn’t have a clear idea what to do,” he admitted, “but when I skated in I saw the opening so I shot and hit it.”
Now the pressure was on Veleno and he almost did it, but Miftakhov barely kept it out - so close that video replay was needed to be sure the puck didn’t cross the line.
“Of course we were all hoping that the Canadian captain didn’t score, and we were just waiting there,” Iskhakov said about the mood on the Russian bench during the review. “The longer it took, the more nervous we felt. However, our coach was confident that it wasn’t a goal, and it was a relief when the referee finally gave the ‘no goal’ signal.”
The Russians poured off the bench to celebrate a hard-earned victory, and the emotion was still on the face of Iskhakov 20 minutes or so later.
“It was a really fun and challenging game. It was a big change from the first two games we played,” he said, referring to Russia’s pre-tournament wins over Belarus and Linz U20. “And of course, it’s always fun to beat Canada.”
Beating Canada, even with two points, is a great way to begin the tournament, and means the Russians know they can earn a spot in the semi-finals for sure with four points from the remaining two games, and possibly with even less.
“It’s a good start for us, but we can’t get too excited because we have two more difficult games coming.”
Those games are against Slovakia on Tuesday and Finland on Wednesday. Playing this tournament in Slovakia is interesting unto itself for Iskhakov, who played the past two seasons with HK Trnava of the Slovak U18 league. Tuesday’s game against the Bratislava Group hosts will be fun because he knows some of the players on the team.
“Yeah, I know a few of the guys, in particular (defenceman) Alexander Zekucia and (forward) Róbert Džugan,” he said. “Maybe we’ll talk later, but during the game they’re not friends. We’re focused on winning.”