Special teams the story in Russian victory

Russia will improve to 2-0 at the World Juniors after beating the Czech Republic 2-1 on Friday evening in Vancouver, Canada.

The Russians will get a day off to rest on Saturday before finishing off the round robin with games against Switzerland and Canada. The Czechs won’t have long to wait until their next battle, taking on the undefeated Canadians on Saturday at 5:00 PM PT in Vancouver.

The Russians were the better team through 40 minutes taking an 18-13 shot advantage and a 2-1 lead into the second break of the game. Both of their goals came while shorthanded, with Artyom Galimov giving his nation the 1-0 advantage at 17:05 when Kirill Slepets found Artyom Galimov, who beat out a slow-moving Czech defenceman and shot the puck under the arm of Lukas Dostal, giving the Russians the 1-0 lead off of a weak goal.

At 35:03, they'd get another shorthanded goal, but this one required a bit more work (and some pain, too). This time, Nikolai Kovalenko took the feed from Pavel Shen in the slot and squeezed the puck past the right pad of Dostal, only to fall into the boards after scoring. He’d need some help getting off the ice and would miss some time, a tough moment for the Russian speedster whom, just minutes before, took a hard hit from Matej Pekar.

Less than a minute later, the Czechs got one back on the power play, but it would also result in a bit of bruising for the goal scorer. David Kvasnicka's point shot would hit Jachym Kondelik square in the face, bouncing up in the air and over Russian goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov. The puck would bounce over the line, giving the Czechs an unlikely goal off of a painful play. The Czechs would have a few chances later in the game, but they couldn't do anything about an early defecit as the Russians would hold on to the 2-1 victory on Friday.

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