On thin ice: the Russian national team barely defeated the German team in the quarterfinals of the MFM-2021 hockey

The Russian national team, in the status of the favorite, approached the match with the German team in the quarterfinals of the World Youth Hockey Championship.

Igor Larionov's charges were spoken of as the status of the current silver medalist of the championship, and the colossal advantage in skill and experience.

So, in Edmonton, the Bundesteam for the first time in history reached the playoffs, while domestic athletes constantly overcame the group stage.

Since the change in the format of the tournament in 1996, they have become winners of the competition four times and 17 times more - prize-winners.

The fact that three Germans were in the top 5 scorers of the World Youth Championship at the end of the group stage should not have been misleading either.

Let Tim Stüzle, John-Jason Peterka and Florian Elias scored 28 points for three, but in their own half they acted extremely unreliable.

None of them could boast of a positive indicator of utility, while for the first two it was at all "-3" and "-4", respectively.

And this is not surprising, given the losses to the Canadians and Finns with a total score of 5:21.

A small help for the Germans could be considered except that the absence of two attackers at once in the Russian national team.

Yegor Chinakhov did not manage to recover from the injury sustained in the confrontation with Austria, and Mikhail Abramov, who replaced him, was disqualified in the match with Sweden.

Based on the starting protocol, one might get the impression that Larionov decided to transfer the team to a game of four full-fledged fives.

Unlike previous matches, there were 12 forwards and four pairs of defenders in the application.

In fact, Yegor Shekhovtsov was mostly on the bench, while Daniil Chaika again found himself in a duet with Yan Kuznetsov.

As for the offensive links, Daniil Bashkirov took Abramov's place in the second, and Vladislav Firstov appeared in the third.

Nevertheless, the most active already almost traditionally became the fourth three of the national team.

Hockey players were active in equal compositions, and later showed themselves in the minority.

Vasily Ponomarev single-handedly drove off to a rendezvous with Florian Bugl and easily outplayed the German goalkeeper.

The Shevinigan striker scored the third goal in the tournament and interrupted a dry streak of three meetings.

In general, Larionov's wards felt quite comfortable in the first period.

This was evidenced by more than a solid superiority over the opponent in key indicators.

The Russians inflicted noticeably more shots on goal (8: 3), were more successful on the throw-in (12: 4) and quite easily penetrated the Bundestim zone.

The only drawback could be called not the most successful game in the majority.

In the fourth minute, Lucas Flade received a small fine, but the domestic hockey players acted quite toothlessly in unequal compositions.

The squad for the quarterfinal match of the World Youth Championship.

Studying and preparing to watch the game, the starting throw-in at 20:00 Moscow time.

🥅Goalkeepers: Askarov, Akhtyamov #Russia in my heartpic.twitter.com / 9mW4FQEtG6

- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) January 2, 2021

The second period was remembered for the abundance of deletions in the Russian national team.

By the fourth minute, Kirill Kirsanov and Semyon Chistyakov managed to earn a small fine, and later the squad was punished for violating the size of the composition.

At the same time, the most dangerous moment at Askarov's goal arose at a time when all five players in red sweaters were on the ice.

Stuzle and Elias were thrown from lethal positions, but the goalkeeper prevented the first, and the second - a lack of executive skill.

With the exception of this episode, in a five-on-five game, the Russians continued to look preferable, which ultimately resulted in the second scored puck.

Yegor Afanasyev and Arseniy Gritsyuk covered the opponent well outside the goal, and Danil Bashkirov delivered an irresistible wrist shot.

For the forward of "Salavat Yulaev" this goal was the first in the tournament.

Subsequently, Larionov's wards could bring the score to a large one, but Firstov did not have enough luck.

Vladislav played great on the interception and was ready to go one on one with Bugol, but he stumbled on the blue line.

Bardakov, who supported the counter-attack, tried to complete what he had begun, but did not hit the target.

Ideally, in the third period, the Russian team should have regained the initiative and dotted the i's in the confrontation with the championship playoff debutant.

But in reality, everything turned out differently.

The Germans continued to press, and the silver medalists suddenly began to make one mistake after another.

One of these led to a goal by Elias in the fourth minute.

The forward of the Germans punished Amirov for his sluggishness in his own zone and left Askarov out of business with a spectacular wrist throw.

However, even this episode did not help the Russians to recover.

There was a lack of confidence in their game, and the attacks seemed too monotonous and predictable.

Largely because of this, the Germans managed to block the lion's share of the opponents' shots, while another solid part went wide.

At certain points, the meeting began to resemble a confrontation with the Czechs, when Larionov's wards could not break through the saturated defense in any way.

In the last ten minutes, the position of the Russian national team has become even more difficult.

At first, all the same Elias successfully substituted the stick under Peterka's throw and shook the crossbar, and two minutes later Yegor Spiridonov earned a removal.

The "red car" was threatened with an over-stressed segment, but the same John-Jason intervened in the matter, having received a removal for blocking.

In equal compositions, domestic hockey players still allowed rivals to bother Askarov several times, but he acted very confidently.

In many ways, it was the goalkeeper who became the main creator of success, repeatedly helping out his comrades throughout the match.

The Russian national team, with great difficulty, managed to keep the winning score in the match with the German team and reached the semifinals of the World Youth Hockey Championship.

Nevertheless, the performance of Larionov's squad left more questions than answers, especially on the eve of a possible meeting with the hosts of the competition.

This will happen if Canada gains the upper hand over Slovakia, the US cracks down on the Czech Republic, and the Finns defeat the Swedes.