Team Canada beats Team Russia 3-2 in the opening game of Canada-Russia challenge
Team Canada held on to a lead that they took by scoring three goals in the second period to beat Team Russia in the Canada-Russia challenge, a hockey series that is being held between National junior teams of both countries. The match was held on Thursday
at Arena 2000 in Yaroslavl, Russia.
The series is being held in Russia and hosts would be looking to level the series when the both lock horns again in the second game on Friday at the same place.
Both teams started strongly on defence and none of the teams could break the deadlock in first period as it remained 0-0 at the end of the first 20 minutes.
Sean Monahan scored the first goal of the game as he got an assist from Morgan Rielly, who was drafted in the first round of 2012 NHL draft by Toronto Maple Leafs. 17-year-old Monahan plays for Ottawa 67’s in the Ontario Hockey League and had a great last
season with 78 points in the 62 games with 33 goals and 45 assists.
Less than two minutes later, Scott Harrington, a prospect of Pittsburgh Penguins, doubled the lead for Team Canada when he scored at 6:02. Anton Slepyshev of Russia, who plays there in a minor league, reduced the lead of Canada as he scored in the 8th
minute.
Canada’s third goal in the second period was scored by Dougie Hamilton, Boston Bruins’ first round pick of the 2011 NHL draft, in the 18th minute to give Canada a lead of 3-1.
Team Russia tried hard to level it and take advantage of Canadians being reduced to three men but could score only goal through Nail Yakupov, the first overall pick of the 2012 NHL draft.
Canada’s coach, Steve Spott was pleased with his team’s performance but thinks there are areas where they need to work as he said,
"Any time you can come into an environment like this and have success you have to be pleased with the effort. There are some areas we have to concentrate on. We turned over some pucks and made some soft plays with managing the pucks, so we'll address that
with our 5-on-5 game, but the effort was there. We had 22 guys playing hard, so as a coaching staff we're pleased with the effort."
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