TORONTO – Mikhail Sergachev might be the most talented defenceman at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, however you wouldn’t necessarily know it after watching Russia’s first two games.
Sergachev, selected ninth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2016 NHL Draft, hasn’t played poorly — not by any stretch — but he was barely noticeable in a 9-1 shellacking of Latvia on Tuesday. Sergachev has merely blended in amidst expectations he would look like a man amongst boys in this tournament.
Against Canada on Monday, Sergachev scored Russia’s opening goal. He let out a fiery celebration when he blew a wrister by Carter Hart but was mostly forgettable for the remainder of the game and only logged 16:46 of ice time. It’s a tall task for any player to shine against a stacked Canadian roster but against an overmatched Latvian team you’d think a talent like the 6-foot-3, 216-pound Sergachev would dominate. That didn’t happen. In fact, he ended up logging even less ice time (15:51) than he did against Canada.
“It doesn’t matter,” Sergachev said after the game in regards to his ice time. “It’s a coaches thing. It’s none of my business. I’m just playing hockey. Just playing how they tell me to play.”
Ice time was an issue earlier this year when Sergachev began the 2016-17 campaign in the NHL. Registering only 10:25 of ice time per contest in the pros isn’t the best way to properly develop a burgeoning talent like Sergachev so he was sent down to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires after just three games with the Canadiens — a move he wasn’t happy with at the time.
Despite his stint with the Habs being brief, the 18-year-old said he learned a lot playing and practicing with the likes of Shea Weber and Andrei Markov and he took that with him back to junior. He had registered 13 points in his 12 most recent games with the Spitfires prior to the world juniors, which makes failing to get a point in a blowout game like this one all the more surprising — 13 different Russian players registered at least one point Tuesday.
Sergachev said all the right things after the game though.
“I don’t actually care,” he explained. “If we’re winning games, I don’t care if I don’t [get any points].”
Perhaps it’s understandable that Sergachev’s performance was slightly underwhelming. After all, he described Monday’s game against Canada as the most emotional hockey game he has ever been a part of. There was bound to be a dip in energy going from facing a Canadian squad in Canada in prime time to an afternoon contest in a half-empty arena (a generous estimation) against a team like Latvia.
Simply put, Sergachev is better than what he showed Tuesday. There were a handful of uncharacteristic lazy passes and lost puck battles and he took a careless interference penalty moments after his best play of the game, a beautifully executed hip check on Roberts Blugers in the first period.
Fortunately for Sergachev, not playing up to one’s potential is much easier to stomach when your team is as dominant as Russia was against Latvia. The game was basically over before it really began. The Russians looked like they were up a man even when the teams were playing at even strength. Very different than what we saw from them in their 5-3 loss to Canada.
“We just played better,” said Sergachev, who added that he looks forward to coming back to the Air Canada Centre and getting booed as a member of the Canadiens. “We started shooting, we were skating, we were creating things.”
Danil Yurtaikin opened the scoring 5:33 into the opening frame in a terrific display of speed and skill, bursting past Latvian defender Rihards Puide then dangling netminder Gustavs Gringals. Alexander Polunin put Russia up 2-0 beating Gringals on the short side seconds after stepping out of the penalty box after serving a high-sticking double minor.
Down 3-0 after 20 minutes thanks to a late Pavel Karnaukhov marker, Latvian coach Eriks Miluns replaced Gringals with Denjis Romanovskis but it didn’t help. Russian captain and Minnesota Wild prospect Kirill Kaprizov scored 56 seconds into the second period to make it 4-0. Romanovskis ended up allowing three goals in five minutes and four seconds and Gringals was put back in the crease.
Mareks Mitens performed admirably for Latvia despite giving up six goals against the Americans Monday, so Miluns might be best served to turn back to him if they wish to keep things competitive against Canada on Thursday.
In the other crease Russian netminder Vladislav Sukhachyov got the nod ahead of Ilya Samsonov and was as good as he needed to be. He robbed Toronto Maple Leafs 2015 third-rounder Martin Dzierkals with a glove save on a two-on-one down low while Russia was shorthanded in the first period. Sukhachyov was beaten once on a beauty toe-drag snipe from by Rudolfs Balcers to make it 4-1 but any momentum Latvia had at that point disappeared when Polunin picked up his second of the game.
Polunin and his linemates, Mikhail Vorobyov and Kaprizov, did the heavy lifting up front for Russia. That line combined for five goals and eight assists.
“We felt more comfortable today, and once the goals started to come it was fun,” said Kaprizov who had a hat trick and two assists. “Today, it all started to come together for our line. We had a bit of luck and were moving the puck well.”
Once the score got to 6-1 and Latvia made their second goalie change five minutes into the second period the pace slowed and both teams looked like they were just going through the motions.
Russia was humbled in their tournament opener against Canada and used a ‘gimme game’ against Latvia to get back on track. If they’re to go far in this tournament they’ll need the Polunin-Vorobyov-Kaprizov line to continue playing well and they’ll need Sergachev to take his game to another level in time for Thursday’s game against the United States.