Askarov shuts out Canada West as Russia stays perfect

A tremendous 31-save effort by Yaroslav Askarov would help give the Russians the 3-0 victory at the World Junior A Challenge to stay perfect after three games.

With two of the top NHL draft prospects in the tournament — Alex Newhook for Canada West and Vasily Podkolzin for Russia — it was sure to be an exciting battle between the two major hockey rivals. The Russians would get the first laugh at 10:44 on the power play, however, as Daniil Gutik and Podkolzin would make some great passes on the power play before Nikolai Burenov popped in a rebound off a Podkolzin one-timer from the right circle.

Canada never really could settle into their game and the Russians would make it 3-0 before Canada really could get their legs moving. At 1:23, Mikhail Abramov’s scoring chance was stopped by Matthew Davis, but Aleksandr Gordin was there to pick up the loose rebound and scooped the backhand over the Canadian goaltender, putting his team up by two.

Davis, who was instrumental in Canada’s victory over the United States on Sunday, would get pulled early in the third after giving up his third goal. This time, Davis would head to the hashmarks to play the puck, instead failing to get it up in the air before Maksim Groshev grabbed the disk and scored on the empty net, giving Russia the 3-0 lead while playing shorthanded.

With the win, Russia will leap into first place at the tournament after staying perfect through three games. They will finish their round-robin schedule on Friday when they challenge the United States at 2:00 PM MST. Canada West's final preliminary round contest will take place tomorrow night when they face off against the Czech Republic at 7:00 PM.

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