ROSTER STANDINGS STATS

2003 IIHF  World Junior Championships Dec.26 2002 - Jan.5 2003 Halifax, Sydney  CANADA

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Mission accomplished !

JAN.6 -- High expectations at such hockey events have been always Canadian trademark. The boys wearing Maple Leaf jerseys always hope for gold and treat anything else, even the silver, as a loss no matter what are the circumstances.
   Going into this years World Junior Tournament and taking a close look at Russia's roster I expected nothing less than a gold medal performance. Watching Rafail Ishmatov's squad dominate throughout the round robin, while being quite off their A game, it became quite apparent that anything else than a victory for this team should be labeled as a bust.
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RHI WJC All-Star team

JAN.5 -- Russian Hockey Insider's All-Star team of the World Junior Championship.
Goaltender: Robert Goepfert, United States
Replaced struggling James Howard in tournaments opening game and never looked back. 1.80 G.AA and 939 SVS%. ...
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Belarus, Germany relegated

JAN.4 -- Switzerland defeated Sweden and Germany to finish top of the standings of the relegation tournament with a perfect 3-0 record. Patrick Bartschi recorded two goals and as many helpers to lead his team's offense in 5-3 and 6-2 wins against Tre Kronor and Deutschland respectively.
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Bring on Canada!

JAN.3 -- Russia became the first team to reach the final on Friday afternoon beating Finland 4-1 in semi-final action on the ice of Halifax Metro Center.
  Rafail Ishmatov's squad delivered solid, albeit lackluster effort to dispose of quite banged up and tired Errka Westerlund's team.
  "We're yet to play the way we really can play at this tournament," - said Ishmatov following the game. Couldn't agree with him more, as Russia thus far has been performing good enough to win, but is yet to play with energy and despair which is much due to lack of quality opposition at the event.
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Ooops, he did it again!

JAN.1 -- Once again Alexander Ovechkin came up big when needed, scoring his second hat-trick of the tournament on New Year's eve to lift Russia to a 7-5 win in a spirited contest versus Switzerland. The game itself was meaningless, as Rafail Ishmatov's side earned its bye to the semis on Sunday, while the Swiss were allready eliminated from the medal round.
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Another day, another victory

DEC.29 -- Team Russia registered its third straight victory Sunday Night beating hopeless Belarussians 5-1 on the ice of Sydney's Centre 200. Russia's second unit of Igor Grigorenko, Andrei Taratukhin and Alexander Perezhogin combined for three of the five goals to lead the offense.
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Other WJC stories:

Dec.29 - Another day, another victory
Dec.28 - Two down, four to go
Dec.27 - Ovechkin rocks the World in Russia's opener
Dec.25 - Ishmatov: Zherdev could become tournament's MVP
Dec.25 - Dostoevsky Report: Team Russia:Part III: Defense preview
Dec.24 - Dostoevsky Report: Team Russia:Part II: Forwards & goaltending preview
Dec.23 - Dostoevsky Report: Team Russia: Part I: Forwards preview
Dec.22 - Juniors left for Canada: - Korsunov, + Ezhov
Dec.18 - Russian Juniors win in exhibition game
Dec.16 - Russia U-20: roster: Dosto's predictions