The day after convincing win over Czech Republic Russia took on Latvia who, in turn, had been demolished by Finland 7:2.

This time Andrei Vasilevski was in goal as Russian bench boss Mikhail Vasiliev decided to check his backup puckstopper in action. And, getting a bit ahead of our story he made the right choice.

Latvia started with an attempt to speed up their attack trying to set a stronger tone compared to their previous performance. But this was not to happen – from fifth minute on the tone was set by Russia when Nikita Nesterov opened the scoring. Two minutes later Vladislav Namestnikov doubled the lead.
Nonetheless, Latvia did manage to create a few dangerous attacks but those were never converted – Vasilevski frustrated all of the Latvian attacking effort, registering a perfect shutout.

Vladislav Namestnikov along with team mate and captain Yevgeni Kuznetsov had a hat trick each. Other scorers were Grigori Zheldakov and Maxim Shalunov. Final whistle stopped the clock at 9-0 in favor of Russia

After the game Vladislav Namestnikov, the MVP of the game had this to say to RIHF web-site:
- Well, emotions are all positive. We had some problems capitalizing on good chances early on but later we did manage to break down their defenses and scoring went on smoothly. Of course I am happy with my hat trick but I admit there is much work to be done perfecting my game.
When asked if the Russian team’s motivation was low taking on an opponent that had allowed 7 goals in their previous game, Vladislav insisted that no gung-ho attitude were there.

- We try and tune up our winning mindset going at any opponent. We know any team here is capable of bursting at a specific moment in a specific game. Namestnikov also observed that toward the end of the game Latvia went to the “rough stuff “style of play apparently frustrated with a crushing score.
Russian head coach Mikhail Vasiliev also offered his comment:
“We had no doubts we were going to win this one. One other thing, a bit disturbing, that the players were inconsistent in sticking to the coaching assignments for the game. One reason may be that they all wanted to score as many goals as they possibly could, another – was self-confidence. I’d asked them simply to play good hockey, for instance beating one, two or three opponents by stick handling, make a good passing game. However, I can’t help being satisfied with the result. I admit that in the course of the game they did make some blunders but this should be explained by the emotions, desire to score a lot of goals and play to the best of their abilities”.

Vasiliev also commented on Andrei Vasilevski performance:
“I’d disagree if Andrei be called a back-up goalie. My stand on the matter is that there are no Number Ones on this team. It is true that Sergei Kostenko has played so many games for us, we’ve known him for quite some time, as well as his ability. Today everyone has seen young Andrei in action as he turned on an impressive performance. Never was he lost or unsure, kept his cool throughout and generally did whatever is required of a goaltender. Therefore I am happy we have two good backstops on the team, if not equally good but equally reliable anyway” he said.

The next day Russian team will have a practice and a meeting whereat the games against Czech Republic and Latvia will be thoroughly analyzed with an accent on defensive patterns and organization.

Game 3 for Vasiliev’s squad will be against Finland on Friday 16 April.

Latvia - Russia 0:9 (0:2, 0:4, 0:3)
Goals: 0:1 Nesterov (Arzamastsev) 5:09 PP1; 0:2 Namestnikov (Barbashev) 7:32; 0:3 Kuznetsov (Gurkin, Barbashev) 20:29; 0:4  Namestnikov (Arzamastsev, Barbashev) 22:33; 0:5 Namestnikov (Galimov) 25:51; 0:6 Zheldakov (Namestnikov) 33:17 PP1; 0:7 Kuznetsov (Barbashev) 40:23; 0:8 Kuznetsov (Stepanov) 43:42; 0:9 Shalunov 57:49
Goalies: Gudlevskis (Miscucs) - Vasilevski

Russian Ice Hockey Federation
Press Service