January 10, 2000

Team Russia at the 1999 Junior World Championships

Team Russia became the silver medalists of the 1999/2000 Junior World Championships. It was the team's third final in a row. In 1997/1998, Russia lost to Finland in overtime. In 1998/1999, there was a triumph of Russian juniors when team Canada was beaten in the final.

In 1999/2000, the Russians were close to repeating the excellent final play of the previous year but lost to the Czeck Republic in a shootout. Milan Kraft was the person who was lucky in the shootout and made his team World Champions.

However there is no need to feel sorry for the Russian juniors. Their loss comes with with a hint of gold. Imagine six wins in six games with a magnificent difference of the goals scored and allowed 37-6!!! There is one more fact to be proud of. Alexander Ryazantsev was named the best defenseman of the tournament by the directors of the championships. Once again he along with his teammates Alexei Tereschenko, the right wing of Dynamo Moscow, and Evgeny Muratov, left wing of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, made the starting All- Star lineup of the championships according to the voting of journalists.

Of course it is sad to realize that there were no players of the caliber of Maxim Afinogenov, Maxim Balmochnikh or Vitaly Vishnevsky calibre on the roster, but one must admit the team looked very good in general. We were in need of a player who could score the winning goal however.

But, there is no need to worry because Russia has excellent junior teams of players under 18 and 17. There are already some stars like Ilya Kovalchuk, the representative of Spartak Moscow who was acknowledged as the best player of the Challenge Cup recently held in Canada. Trubachev, Chistov and Minakov as well.

Moreover, recently Russian Junior Team Under-18, governed by Andrei Pytanov, recently won an international tournament held in Switzerland. Here are the scores: "Bern"-Russia 2:6, Russia-Germany 8:1, Norway-Russia 1:7, Switzerland-Russia 1:8.

One more pleasant fact to realize is that four players of the 1999/2000 Junior Team Russia can take part in the next World Championships which will be held in St. Petersburg. They are Kirill SAFRONOV, Denis DENISOV, Evgeny MURATOV, Valeri KHLEBNIKOV, Pavel DUMA. Experience is an important thing!!!

GOALIES
Name (Birth L/R Height Weight) Club GP MIN SOG GA GAA %
BRYZGALOV Ilia (1980-06-22 L 191 89)Togliatti 4 234:04 105 3 0,77 97%
VOLKOV Alexei (1980-03-15 L 190 89) Halifax 5 185:11 81 4 1,30 95%

PLAYERS
Name (Birth POS L/R Height Weight) Club GP G A PTS PIM +/-
RIAZANTSEV Alexandre (1980-03-15 RD R 182 93)Victor. 7 2 6 8 2 10
LJUBIMOV Alexander (1980-02-15 LD L 191 89) CSK VVS 7 3 2 5 4 7
SAFRONOV Kirill (1981-02-26 LD L 188 92) Quebec 7 0 3 3 6 5
DENISOV Denis (1981-12-31 RD L 185 80) HC Moscow 7 1 1 2 0 3
SCHADILOV Igor (1980-06-07 LD L 189 86) Dynamo Moscow 7 1 0 1 0 7
MARIAMS Artem (1980-07-19 RD L 188 86) Yaroslavl 7 1 0 1 4 6
ESSIPOV Andrei (1980-05-09 RD L 181 89) Yaroslavl 7 0 1 1 4 3
BALANDIN Mikhail (1980-06-27 LD L 189 92) Krylja Sovetov 7 0 1 1 4 2
MURATOV Evgeny (1981-01-28 LW R 176 81) Neftekhimik Niz. 7 6 2 8 4 8
TERESCHENKO Alexei(1980-12-16 CE L 180 72) Dynamo Moscow 7 3 5 8 2 6
SMIRNOV Oleg (1980-04-08 LW R 182 84) Spartak Moscow 7 2 6 8 2 7
AFANASENKOV Dimitri (1980-05-12 LW R 185 86) Sherbrooke 7 5 1 6 6 5
ZEVAKHIN Alexander (1980-06-04 LW L 183 87) C.S.K.A. 5 2 3 5 2 6
BUT Anton (1980-07-03 LW L 186 87) Torpedo Yaroslavl 7 2 3 5 2 1
ZINOVJEV Sergei (1980-03-04 RW L 180 77) Metallurg Novo. 7 2 3 5 6 9
FEDOROV Evgeny (1980-11-11 CE L 176 85) Molot Perm 7 1 4 5 4 6
SHVIDKY Denis (1980-11-21 RW L 184 92) Barrie Colts 7 2 2 4 0 5
LAPIN Evgeni (1980-05-08 CE L 170 71) Yaroslavl 7 1 3 4 6 4
KHLEBNIKOV Valeri (1981-10-13 RW L 174 78) Yaroslavl 7 2 1 3 2 1
DUMA Pavel (1981-06-20 CE L 187 82) Neftekhimik Nizh. 7 1 2 3 4 9

Denis Neznanov
HockeyZone's Russian Correspondent