How to watch
Puck drop: 10:30 PM EST / 7:30 PM PST
In Canada: TSN3, TSN5 (English,) RDS (French)
In the United States: NHL Network
Live stream: TSN Direct, RDS Direct
Slovakia saved its best performance for the country’s most critical match of the tournament. In the game versus Kazakhstan, they netted 11 goals — six in the opening period — to secure their place in the quarter-finals.
Even the tournament’s top offensive team was only able to score one on Russia on the last day of the preliminary round, so there won’t be anything like 11 goals for the Slovaks tonight. A strong defensive effort allowed the Russians to defeat Canada by a 2-1 score. If Slovakia wants to pull off a major upset, it’s going to take an incredible 60-minute effort in the day’s last quarter-final.
Russia isn’t immune to such a shocking result. Even in this tournament, they were down 3-1 to the Swiss at one point in the second period, but they then scored six of the final seven goals. When the team wants to win, they can ramp up their play perhaps better than any other nation in the world.
The key for the Russians will be consistently doing the little things well, and no one has done that better through four games than defenceman Alexander Romanov. The Montreal Canadiens defence prospect is tied for the team lead in points and paces all defencemen with five points (though Sweden’s Erik Brannstrom has four goals), and he’s been just as good in his own zone, confidently playing the puck, defending his portion of the rink, and leading the event with a +7 goal differential. He’s burst onto the scene in a major way, and tonight should offer another noteworthy performance.
Team Russia projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #9 Artyom Galimov |
#23 Ivan Muranov |
#29 Kirill Slepets |
| #14 Vitali Kravtsov |
#24 Klim Kostin |
#28 Grigori Denisenko |
| #10 Stepan Starkov |
#15 Nikolai Kovalenko |
#16 Pavel Shen |
| #18 Nikita Shashkov |
#12 Kirill Marchenko |
#17 Ivan Morozov |
| #11 Vasili Podkolzin |
|
|
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #2 Danila Zhuravlyov |
#6 Ilya Morozov |
| #26 Alexander Romanov |
#5 Dmitri Samorukov |
| #8 Saveli Olshansky |
#4 Alexander Alexeyev |
| #27 Mark Rubinchik |
|
Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
| #20 Pyotr Kochetkov |
| #30 Daniil Tarasov |
Team Slovakia projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #18 Patrik Hrehorcak |
#23 Adam Liska |
#26 Milos Roman |
| #13 Filip Krivosik |
#21 Adam Ruzicka |
#25 Martin Pospisil |
| #17 Milos Kelemen |
#19 Mikos Fafrak |
#27 Andrej Kollar |
| #15 Pavol Regenda |
#24 Jozef Balaz |
#28 Andrej Kukuca |
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #6 Martin Fehervary |
#29 Michal Ivan |
| #7 Marek Korencik |
#22 Adam Ziak |
| #8 Marcel Dlugos |
#14 Daniel Demo |
| #9 Andrej Golian |
|
Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
| #2 Samuel Hlavaj |
| #30 Juraj Sklenar |
