Canada Red was unable to hold on to their early first period lead, allowing Russia to advance to the semi-finals following a 4-1 victory for the visitors.
Canada would get the first goal of the game from Mr. Exceptional, Sean Day. The defenseman, who is having a stellar start to the Ontario Hockey League season with the Mississauga Steelheads, The 16-year-old would score the only goal of the first, a power-play marker seven minutes into the period.
Canada didn’t know it yet, but it was the beginning of the end for the hometown team. Halfway through the second, German Rubtsov started the Russian scoring brigade with an even strength goal to tie the game. Canada tried to battle back, peppering Maxim Kalyayev from every angle in an attempt to take back their lead, but the Irbis Kazan goaltender stood tall with a sharp performance.
The Canadians occurred a brutal collapse in the third. First, Dmitri Sokolov gave Russia the game winning goal just three minutes into the second. Two minutes after, Sokolov was lucky again, beating Dylan Wells with a great fake deke in front to make it 3-1. Two minutes after that, Kalyayev’s teammate from Kazan, Maxim Bain, capped off the 4-1 victory with a nice little play of his own.
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