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Russians blow out Germany to remain undefeated

It’s an odd situation when a team wins 7-0 against a bottom of the barrel team and you credit the goaltender, but that’s how the game went. Germany was by no means the dominant team, but Russia gave up tons of chances after they dominated the first period.

Russia got off to a quick 3-0 lead with goals from NIkita Kucherov, Nail Yakupov, and Danil Zharkov. Yakupov’s goal was his first in the World Juniors. He went scoreless last year as a 17 year old despite wracking up 9 assists.

As noted before, Andrei Vasilevski was the star of this game, making several highlight reel stops, especially in the third period. After how Andrei Makarov played yesterday against the Americans, it’s a toss up which goalie gets the call against Canada. It would be tough for the Russian coach to make a bad decision in this regard, I think the two best goalies in the tournament are on the Russian team.

Yaroslav Kosov treated the fans to a special moment in the 3rd period, scoring a natural hat trick for Russia to end the game.

The Russian crowd in Ufa serenaded their team with cheers and whistles for the last 3+ minutes of the third period, wholly appreciative of the 3 straight wins they’ve been treated to.

With the win, Russia temporarily takes over 1st place in the group, and ensures that they can finish no lower than 2nd.

For some unknown reason, Albert Yarulin was named player of the game for Russia. He had a single powerplay goal, but I don’t think he factored into the game much at all.

Russia’s next game is against Canada on December 31st, the now famous New Years Eve game on TSN. The game is the only one of Canada’s that starts at a decent time, beginning at 9:00AM EST. The game is just over 24 hours after Canada will have faced the other top team in their group, as they face off against the USA tomorrow at 4:30AM EST.

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