Canada VS Russia WHL Style
Don Denton/Victoria News staff Victoria's Tyson Barrie (#4), a member of the Kelowna Rockets, playing for Team WHL is checked by Team Russia's #26 Danil Gubarev during Game 5 of the Subway Super Series at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
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Updated: December 01, 2009 9:40 AM
No one can blame the Russians for a lack of intensity.
Having come into Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Wednesday night, the Russian Selects junior hockey team had already suffered four losses, two to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League all-stars and two to the Ontario Hockey League all stars.
A win over the WHL doesn't redeem anything for the team of mostly 17 and 18-year-olds, only some of which will play at the IIHF World Junior hockey championship, held in Saskatchewan this December.
Nonetheless, the Russians played a slow, careful and could have been WHL All-Stars 2-1 win did not do the game justice.
If it weren’t for the stellar positional play of Russian netminder Igor Bobkov, it could have been a blowout.
Not all of Bobkov’s 40 saves were of game-saving quality, but enough of them were, earning him player of the game honours for team Russia.
There was a few body-checking, up-tempo shifts by the WHL to start the game – the kind of hockey major junior is known for.
With little physical retaliation from the visitors, the superb stickhandling skills of the WHL forwards were put to the test in trying to break through the cautious defensive play of the Russians.
Meanwhile, the homecoming for Tyson Barrie didn’t go unnoticed. The Belmont grad was cheered early and often, though the biggest cheer of the night for Barrie didn’t happen – his second period slapshot from the point rung made it through traffic and beat Bobkov, but rung off the crossbar and into the corner.
“I don’t score too many goals. It would have been nice to get that one,” said Barrie, who's one of seven players playing again tonight.
The two select junior teams complete the Super Series tonight (Nov. 26) in Kelowna, where Barrie plays for the Kelowna Rockets.
Though there are more than a few NHL general managers who want to see their first round draft picks playing defense for team Canada at the World junior's, 18-year-old Barrie is still hoping to crack the national team roster.
