LILLEHAMMER – Russia proved too strong for the Norwegian men’s U16 national team at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. After starting with a 4-3 win against Canada, the Russians won the game against the hosts 13-1.

The Russians made sure it won’t be a nail-biting affair already in the first period in which they had 20 shots on goal while allowing Norway just two. In total Russia outshot Norway 51-10.

“It was not a hard game for us although they have some nice players but tomorrow it will be tougher for us,” said Russian forward Roman Rotenberg.

Andrei Shvechnikov had four goals and two assists, Alexander Zhabreyev scored three goals and notched three assists.

Zhabreyev opened the scoring with a pair of goals at 3:17 and 11:01 of the first period and before the intermission Svechnikov also scored twice to make it 4-0.

In the second period the Norwegians had a couple of more shots with Russia taking four penalties but the pucks landed again in Kristian Hovik’s net. Zhabreyev made it a hat trick at 6:01 and three-and-a-half minutes later Maxim Denezhin scored on a rebound with a shot right under the crossbar.

With one second remaining in the middle frame Svechnikov also completed his hat trick by capitalizing on a rebound on the right side after a shot coming from left.

42 seconds into the third period the local fans from the 1,198 spectators in attendance went mad when the Norwegian team put itself onto the scoreboard after a goal from Mathias Emilio Pettersen. The centre from Manglerud, who moved to the United States when he was 14, scored Norway’s first goal of the tournament.

However, that was not the start of a comeback as Alexander Khovanov showed with Russia’s eighth goal just one minute later and a few seconds after a Russian penalty had expired, Grigori Denisenko made it 9-1 on a breakaway.

“It was our toughest game. Russia is really good. We know they’re one of the best teams in the world. We saw it in their game against Canada when they dominated as well, so we thought the score could become big,” said Norwegian goalie Hovik.

Kirill Nizhnikov, Svechnikov with his fourth marker, Yegor Sokolov and Denisenko added late goals for the 13-1 win.

Russia will attempt to continue its winning streak tomorrow against Finland while Norway will have two off days before playing their last preliminary-round game against Canada.

MARTIN MERK