The match with the Czech team at the World Youth Hockey Championship was supposed to be a kind of litmus test for the Russian national team.

A confident victory would confirm that the success in the confrontation with the Americans was not accidental, and Igor Larionov's wards are indeed one of the favorites of the tournament.

A misfire could be a serious blow and significantly reduce the chances of the domestic squad in first place in the group.

And given the new playoff grid formation system, each point missed can significantly complicate the path to the final.

Not the most positive moment was the fact that in the first round the Czechs suffered a humiliating defeat from the Swedes.

Karel Mleinek's charges lost 1: 7 and probably had a tough conversation with the coaching staff.

There was no need to doubt their mood for a meeting with the Russians, and after an unsuccessful start at the MFM, the mood of the Czechs should have been outrageous.

Despite the success in the first match, Larionov went for serious changes in the composition, leaving only the fourth link intact.

And this is not surprising, because two days ago it was it who organized three of the five goals against the US team.

As for other combinations, Yegor Afanasyev returned to the link of Marat Khusnutdinov and Vasily Podkolzin, who played with them at the Karjala Cup.

Rodion Amirov and Danil Bashkirov ended up with Yegor Chinakhov, and Arseniy Gritsyuk and Ilya Safonov - with Vladislav Firstov.

The role of the 13th forward went to Egor Spiridonov.

The Russians confidently began the meeting with the Czechs and immediately seized the initiative.

This was expressed both in the almost complete possession of the puck, and in a solid advantage in the number of shots.

In the first ten minutes, the domestic squad disturbed Lukash Parzhik seven times, while Yaroslav Askarov only entered the game three times.

Although in one of the episodes the SKA goalkeeper had to show the class: Jan Kuznetsov made a gross mistake in the transfer and allowed Adam Raschke to go one on one with the goalkeeper, but he saved his partners.

Composition for the game with the Czechs at the World Youth Championship.



🥅 Goalkeepers: Askarov, Akhtyamov #Russiain my heartpic.twitter.com / fvGWFGVeZt

- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 28, 2020

The superiority of the Russian national team in one of the key components was largely due to the fact that already in the second minute they got a chance to realize their numerical advantage.

Karel Klikorka commits a foul on Bashkirov, but failed to punish his opponent for being rude.

In this case, the most dangerous moment arose already in equal compositions, but Arseny Knyazev got into the crosspiece.

In general, the performance of the Russians in the first period did not leave the best impression.

The Czechs figured out how to play against opponents betting on combinational hockey and began to increasingly cover them when they left their own zone.

Larionov's team turned out to be not ready for such pressure and began to make mistakes in passes, which helped the opponents to come out ahead in the number of shots (9-11).

The ending of the 20-minute, although it took place in the Czech zone, was not remembered for its dangerous moments.

Mleinek perfectly prepared his team for the confrontation and outplayed Larionov at the start.

The second period followed a similar scenario.

During the break, the Russians got a boost of energy and played the first half of the game with shock, but in the second the Czechs managed to seize the initiative.

If at first Larionov's wards slightly changed their tactics and began to pass the middle of the site on individual skill, then again they began to shift the emphasis towards risky short and medium passes.

A couple of these episodes ended in serious problems.

First, Askarov gave a pass to Yakub Rykhlovski, but he corrected the mistake with an excellent save.

And then Daniil Chaika's inaccurate lateral pass led to the removal of Artemiy Knyazev.

True, the Czechs did not manage to take advantage of the numerical advantage.

The Russians controlled the puck in the opponent's zone and were marked by many protracted combination attacks, but one of them led to a conceded goal.

Shakir Mukhamadullin was unable to handle the puck on the blue line after the ejection and provoked a counterattack by the Czechs.

Rychlovski broke through on the left flank and executed a cross pass to Philip Koffer.

Askarov desperately tried to save the gate, but could not move to the opposite corner in time.

Larionov was unlikely to be satisfied with the game of his charges, so during the break he decided on personnel changes.

Afanasyev moved into the top three to Bashkirov and Amirov, and Chinakhov made a company to Khusnutdinov and Podkolzin in the first link.

This bore fruit, and already in the third minute of the final period, the second link could nominally upset Parzhik, but the goalkeeper was again at his best.

Podkolzin and company continued to act as the first number, but could not catch the opponents by surprise.

They defended themselves very compactly and selflessly, so most of the Russians' throws did not reach the goal.

If the International Ice Hockey Federation kept statistics of blocked and inaccurate attempts to hit the goal, then the advantage of the Russians in this aspect would be colossal.

However, in the classic statistics of throws, Larionov's wards only slightly surpassed their opponents - 30:29.

However, the Russians failed to realize their advantage - in the 46th minute, they again made a mistake and allowed the Czech team to carry out a counter-blow.

Martin Lang's goal turned out to be almost an exact copy of Koffer's puck, with the only difference that the Plzen striker did not roll out a pass to his partner, but scored himself.

In the time remaining before the final siren, the Russian team received a numerical advantage three times, but again demonstrated the presence of serious problems in this component.

At the end of the match, Larionov was released onto the ice of the sixth field player, but it was not possible to break through the built defense of the Czechs.

The Russian national team lost to the Czech team with a score of 0: 2 and demonstrated that they still experience huge problems in fights with teams relying on deep defense.

In the standings, Larionov's wards let the Americans go ahead and dropped to third place in Group B.