Names to know and standouts from the ‘05 Russian nationals tournament.
The 2021 under-16 Russian national tournament concluded over the weekend. Eight of the top teams converged on Khanty-Mansiysk in the Ural District of the country for the 24-game event.
The teams were split into two pools of four, where they played three round-robin games before being seeded in a single-elimination bracket. After pool play, Dynamo Moscow was the top team from Group A and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was the top team in Group B. The two teams cruised through the quarterfinals and semifinals, setting the stage for a championship game on Sunday between the top two teams in the tournament.
After a scoreless first period, defenseman Mark Ulyev scored his first goal of the tournament to put Lokomotiv on the board first. Just three minutes later, Alexander Rybakov doubled his team’s lead on Dynamo to make the score 2-0 heading into the third period.
The team’s leading scorer, Daniil But added an empty-net goal in the final seconds of the game to secure the 3-0 victory. The goal was his third point of the game and eleventh of the tournament, as But finished among the leaders in the event.
Nikolay Nikulshin backstopped Lokomotiv in impressive fashion, giving up just one goal during the elimination rounds. He held opponents scoreless for 174 minutes and 42 seconds, posting back-to-back shutouts, including the championship game against Dynamo.
Other noteworthy performances include Severstal Cherepovets top pair of forwards, Mikhail Ilyin and Egor Smirnov who combined to score 24 points in the tournament. Second-place Dynamo Moscow had six different players average a point per game, including Egor Rimashevsky, Matvei Maximov, Igor Chernyshov, Emil Pianov, Alexander Lisov and Alexey Zaitsev.
The 2005-born national tournament concluded on Sunday, but the 2006 tournament gets underway from Sochi, Russia, on Thursday. WHH will be all over the action so be sure to like and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for more updates from nationals.
