Mission Accomplished for Kazakhstan at World Juniors

Evgeny Rymarev led Team Kazakhstan with seven points at the 2008 World Junior Championships. His six goals tied him for top overall tournament scoring honors.

En route to preserving their spot at the 2009 World Juniors in Ottawa, Kazakhstan knocked off favored Switzerland in preliminary-round play and held off Denmark in the relegation round. The country also held its own against Team USA and threw a scare into Team Russia before going down to defeat.

Most of the players on head coach Oleg Bolyakin’s team were a mystery to North American fans. The Kazakhs were devoid of previously drafted NHL prospects and featured a young roster with eight players who are 18-years-old or younger in a tournament historically dominated by 19-year-olds.

But the Kazakh players were used to playing together. Many of the players were returnees from the squad that won its pool at the 2007 Division I World Junior Championships. Moreover, 12 of the youngsters play in the Kazzinc-Torpedo system. Kazzinc-Torpedo has typically been the most dominant club in Kazakhstan (although Gornyak Rudny has been the top team this season) and also plays at the Vysshaya level in Russia, one step below the Russian Super League. The players’ familiarity with one another helped immensely in creating a cohesive team.

The Kazakh attack was led by Kazzinc-Torpedo affiliated forwards Evgeni Rymarev, Evgeni Gasnikov and Yakov Vorobyov.

Rymarev, 19, paced Team Kazakhstan with six goals and seven points in six games, ranking among the tournament’s top overall point-getters. He tied Team USA’s Colin Wilson for the most goals in the tournament, tallying a goal against Russia, scoring the game-winner against Switzerland and breaking out for four goals against Denmark, including three-consecutive goals in the third period. In 34 games with Torpedo-Kazzinc this season, he has 11 goals and 20 points.

The 2008 World Juniors isn’t the first time the diminutive (5-foot-8, 160 pound) Rymarev has put up big numbers in international play, but it’s the largest stage on which he has performed. In 2006, he dominated the Division I Under-18 World Championships with seven goals in five matches (winning tournament All-Star honors). He also performed well at the Division I Under-20 Worlds last year, with three goals and five points in five games.

A year ago, Gasnikov led the Kazakh squad at the Division I Under-20s with six points in five games. He also scored the game-winning goal in the tournament clinching 3-2 victory over Norway. In this year’s elite level tourney, the 19-year-old assisted on several of Rymarev’s goals and tied for second on the team with three points. The 5-foot-9 forward has played 16 games this season with Torpedo-Kazzinc’s top team, scoring two goals and four points.

The 18-year-old Vorobyov (also rendered as Vorobiev) scored four goals in the tourney, including a pair of goals against the Swiss. At last year’s Division I Under-18 Worlds, he tallied seven goals and 12 points in just five matches.

On the backline, the Kazahks were anchored by 19-year-old Kazzinc-Torpedo defenseman Roman Savchenko. The 6-foot-3, 185-pound defenseman managed an even plus-minus rating despite playing against other teams’ top forwards and also contributed three assists. Coach Bolyakin chose Savchenko as the best player on the team for post-tournament honors, along with Rymarev and 17-year-old puck-rushing defenseman Evgeni Bolyakin.

Kazzinc-Torpedo goaltending prospect Mikhail Smolnikov, 19, saw the bulk of the playing time in the Kazakh net. He posted a 5.33 goals against average and .883 save percentage in five starts.

Lean backup goalie Sergei Rudolf of Barys Astana stole the show, authoring a pair of wins, a 1.53 goals-against average and .969 save percentage in one start and two relief appearances. At a mere 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, the 19-year-old Rudolf holds the distinction of being one of the smallest players ever to appear in the World Junior Championships. But his lack of size didn’t stop him from turning back 45 of 46 shots in the Kazakhs’ 3-1 upset of Switzerland.

From the outset of the tournament, Team Kazakhstan let it be known that it didn’t plan to be relegated back to Division I without a fight.

The Kazakhs actually scored first against Team USA on a power-play goal by Kazzinc-Torpedo defenseman Alexandr Kurshuk (who is mistakenly listed as a goaltender on the official tournament statistics). Kazakhstan maintained the lead until James vanRiemsdyk scored in the closing seconds of the period. The Americans dominated the second period and went on to win, 5-1, but the Americans came away impressed.

“They have a good team and they compete. We knew it wouldn’t be an easy game,” Tean USA coach John Hynes told USAHockey.com afterward.

In their next game, the Kazakhs gave eventual bronze medalist Team Russia all it could handle. Smolnikov turned back 25 shots in the first period alone, frustrating the Russians, while Rymarev and 17-year-old Kazzinc-Torpedo prospect Konstantin Savenkov scored to give Team Kazahkstan a shocking 2-0 lead after the first period.

It took all of 1:19 into the second period for Viktor Tikhonov and New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov to tie the game. Midway through regulation, Evgeni Kurbatov gave the Russians the lead. But Kazahkstan fought back. Vorobyov re-tied the game on a power-play goal, only to see the Russians grab the lead right back less than a minute later.

Kazzinc-Torpedo has typically been the most dominant club team in Kazakhstan. Twelve players from Kazahstan’s World Junior Championships squad are affiliated with Kazzinc-Torpedo.

Rather than hanging their heads, the Kazakhs kept coming. In the third period, Team Kazakhstan generated 14 shots on Russian goaltender Stanislav Galimov. Finally, the Kazakhs equalized the game on a goal by Kazzinc-Torpedo’s Mikhail Kachulin. The tie game lasted all of 20 seconds, as Boston Bruins draftee Yuri Alexandrov put Russia on top to stay, 5-4. Smolnikov finished with 55 saves on 60 shots.

After losing 5-0 to Team Finland in the next game, Kazakhstan took on Team Switzerland. The Swiss were in the midst of a disappointing tournament, but were favored to beat Kazakhstan. They didn’t count on the acrobatic goaltending of Rudolf or the offensive punch of the top Kazakh line.

A pair of goals by Vorobyov in each of the first two periods gave Kazahkstan a 2-0 lead despite a 24-16 shot disadvantage. At the 7:39 mark of the opening period, Stanislav Vitoshkin found Vorobyov in front of the net. Vorobyov then capitalized on a turnover for a second period power-play goal.

“Votoshkin made a wonderful pass to me for the first goal and I fired the puck to the upper part of the net,” Vorobyov said to WorldJuniors2008.com. “The second goal was scored when I moved to the puck that the goalie had shot out from behind the goal line.”

The Swiss drew to within a goal with a power-play goal with just over six minutes left in regulation. But Rudolf (who made 22 saves in the third period) did not let another puck get past him, and Rymarev capitalized on a breakway in the final minute of play before the Swiss could get Mayer off for an extra attacker.

The win over Switzerland put Kazahstan in the driver’s seat heading to the relegation round. A win over Denmark sealed the deal, as Kazakhstan clinched a spot in the 2009 World Junior Championships and the Swiss and Danes were both relegated to Division I.

Against Denmark, the Danes’ relied heavily on their top line of Lars Eller, Mikkel Boedker and Nichlas Hardt. The Danish trio came through, producing three goals. But the Kazakh team was better, winning both on the scoreboard 6-3 and in the shots department, 32-28.

Twice in the game, Kazahkstan took the lead only to see Denmark find a way to tie the score. Gasnikov struck on the power play midway through the opening period, but Eller tied it on the power play early in the second period. A little past midway through regulation, Vorobyov re-claimed the lead and Rymarev broke loose for a shorthanded goal at 18:36 of the second period. Eller got the goal back with a power play tally 23 seconds later.

Early in the third period, Hardt knotted the game at 3-3, but consecutive penalties by Hardt and Eller midway through the period gave the Kazahks a two-man advantage. The Danes killed off the 5-on-3 portion of the Kazakh power play, but Rymarev put his team ahead to stay. In the final minute of regulation, Rymarev completed his hat trick with an empty net goal. He added another empty netter 14 seconds later.

The Kazahks closed out the 2008 World Junior Championships by getting clubbed 8-0 by Slovakia. But the final game blowout – in a match that meant nothing to either team – did little to put a damper on one of the more inspired underdog performances in recent World Junior Championships history.