MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The Russian national ice hockey team of players under the age of 18 snatched an overtime win over the team from the United States in their group stage encounter of the 2021 IIHF (the International Ice Hockey Federation) Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.
The Russian side was trailing behind the US squad 1-5 in the second period of the game and then made a wild comeback to eliminate the deficit in the score and to send the match into the overtime.
With less than two minutes of the game in the overtime, Russian team’s Captain Nikita Chibrikov made a bad-angle shot at the net of the United States and scored the winner to leave the final score at 7-6.
"I saw the opportunity and just shot the puck," the tournament’s official website quoted Chibrikov as saying after the match.
"It was a good goal. It was a good effort from the team. We were able to change the way this game was played," Chibrikov, who also had two assists during the match, added.
ICYMI: Nikita Chibrikov's overtime zinger gave @russiahockey a leg up after a game of non-stop action against @usahockey #U18Worlds pic.twitter.com/keNbMUlhJQ
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 27, 2021
Commenting on the match outcome, US Head Coach Dan Muse said: "Emotions are still high right now when you lose a game like that."
"It's a tough pill for everybody to swallow, including staff and players," Muse stated. "The biggest thing for us is going to be just moving on to that next game and making sure that we're in a good frame of mind when we get to work here tomorrow."
This was the 21st encounter between the Russian and American teams at the Ice Hockey U18 World Championships with Russia winning 12 of them. The teams previously met in the semifinals of the world championship in 2019, when Russia defeated the United States 3-2 in a series of the penalty shootouts.
Russia is now set to meet today with the team of Finland, while the United States will face the national squad of Germany.
The 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship is hosted by the US cities of Frisco and Plano, in the state of Texas, between April 26 and May 6. In view of preventive measures against COVID-19 spread, all players and national teams’ staff live in the so-called bubble and the audience attendance during matches is limited.
Ten participating national ice hockey teams were divided into two groups with hosts United States playing in Group B alongside the teams from Russia, the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany. Group A includes the national squads from Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Latvia and Belarus.
The 2021 Ice Hockey U18 World Championship is the 23rd edition of the international ice hockey tournament, which is organized annually since 1999 for players of top national teams under the age of 18 years. The 2020 championship, which was scheduled to be hosted by the US cities of Plymouth and Ann Harbor, was cancelled due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Russian U18 ice hockey team is ranked 3rd in terms of medals - three golds, five silvers and three bronzes. It follows the national teams of Finland (four golds, three silvers and four bronzes) and the United States (ten golds, four silvers and three bronzes).
At the previous IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in 2019, Russia took the silver losing to hosts Sweden 3-4 in the overtime period of the final match in Ornskoldsvik.