To Canada or the United States through Germany: with whom the Russian national team can play in the playoffs of the MFM-2021 hockey

At the World Youth Hockey Championship in Edmonton, all the participants in the playoffs were determined.

The Russian national team took second place in its quintet and received Germany as a rival in the quarterfinals.

For Igor Larionov's charges, the decisive stage of the planetary championship will begin on January 2 at 20:00 Moscow time.

Until the last round, the Russians led Group B and could have remained in first place if the United States beat Sweden in overtime or in a shootout.

However, their match ended with a dry victory of the Americans with a score of 4: 0, which is why the playoffs for the Russian national team will start not from Switzerland, but from Germany.

The matches with the German youth team for the Russians are traditionally very successful.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, each meeting ended with the victory of domestic hockey players, and only in 1994 the Russian national team scored less than four goals, content with only one.

In all the rest, defeat was recorded, including at the group stage of last year's World Cup.

Then the wards of Valery Bragin, who was helped by the current mentor of the team, won with a score of 6: 1.

Then two assists were given by the current captain of the Russian national team Vasily Podkolzin, and the goalkeeper Yaroslav Askarov missed the "cracker" in the last minutes.

But that German national team was fundamentally different from the current one, which can be called the main discovery of the youth world championship.

In its entire history, she never made the playoffs of this tournament, and the last time in the top eight was only in 1996, when six teams continued to fight after the group stage.

Throughout the 2000s, the Germans invariably balanced between the elite and the first divisions, without pretending to be anything more, and now found themselves in the company of the strongest youth teams in the world.

Typically, the German youth team is composed of players playing at home or in neighboring Austria and Switzerland.

According to the same principle, the head coach Tobias Abshtreiter gathered the team and before the trip to Edmonton, only now he had two real youth hockey stars at his disposal, who immediately began to radically influence the result of the national team.

First of all, we are talking about Tim Stüzl.

The Ottawa Senators selected the striker as number three in the most recent NHL draft to match Leon Dreiseitl's national record.

In the fall, Stüzle broke his arm and was eliminated for almost two months, but he not only recovered for the World Cup, but also managed to sign a three-year contract with the Canadian club, where he will be expected immediately upon his return from Edmonton.

Also a career in the NHL awaits other center forward John-Jason Peterka.

He was the 34th overall pick by the Buffalo Sabers.

In Edmonton, the German team began to amaze from the very first match, when they imposed a struggle on Finland.

Abshtraiter's wards lost with a score of 3: 5, and the three Shtüzle and Peterka, supplemented by Florian Elias, scored two goals.

The next day, Germany was literally destroyed by Canada with a score of 2:16, but at the same time the Germans became the only team that twice hit the goal of the tournament hosts.

In the next two matches, Germany achieved victories over Slovakia and Switzerland.

The Germans have scored a total of nine goals.

The first link was involved in each goal, and in the end it completely ended up in the top five top scorers of the group stage - Stüzle and Peterka scored ten points each, Elias earned eight.

None of the Russian players were even in the top ten.

Rodion Amirov managed to climb only to the 11th line thanks to two goals and four assists.

If the Russian national team wins, they will have to wait for the results of all the other quarterfinals to find out their next opponent.

In the semifinals, a re-draw will take place according to the rating based on the results of the group stage.

In it, the Russian team is in fourth place, so with a high degree of probability Canada will be waiting for Larionov's players further in the playoffs, which is still the first seed.

It will be possible to play with Finland or the United States if one of these teams makes it to the quarterfinals, and the other leaves it.

It will be possible to get an opponent with a lower seeding if at least two of the three favorites finish the fight.