Evgeni Grachev scores on Czech goalie Dominik Furch on a third period shorthanded breakaway. Photo: Reuters

A World Junior Championship isn’t complete until perennial foes Russia and Canada face off in a winner-takes-all elimination match, and that’s exactly what will happen tonight, after the Russia dispatched the Czech Republic in the tournament quarterfinal on Friday.

Ranger 2008 third round draft picks Evgeny Grachev and Tomas Kundratek saw a lot of each other in the quarterfinal, and while Kundratek entered the game having played better and turned more heads in the round-robin portion of the tournament, it was Grachev who finally showed some of the skill, speed and strength that first got him noticed in the U-18 World Championship in Kazan in 2008 and had him leading all rookies in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in scoring before he left for Ottawa two weeks ago.

Grachev, who’s playing center in the tournament after spending much of this season on the left wing for the Brampton Battallion, set up the eventually game-winner by Nikita Filatov with a perfect pass to the right faceoff dot from behind the goal early in the third period.   But what caught most observers eyes was the 3-on-5 shorthanded goal that gave Russia the 3-0 lead six minutes later.  With two players in the box for Team Russia, Grachev won the defensive zone faceoff, which was controlled by defenseman Dmitri Kulikov and cleared to center ice through Czech defender David Stich, where Grachev raced fellow prospect Kundratek for the puck.  Grachev used his long reach to poke the puck beyond Kundratek’s reach, and turned on the jets to pick it up and carry into the Czech zone alone, beating the Czech goaltender through the five-hole with a backhander.  It was Grachev’s first goal of the tournament and the first time Kundratek had been on the ice for a goal against in the entire tournament.

Now Kundratek and the Czechs will face-off against a disappointing Team USA, who fell to Slovakia in the other quarterfinal match, for fifth place in the tournament, while the Russian squad plays Canada for a berth in the gold medal game tonight.  Russia hasn’t beaten Canada in a World Junior Championship medal round game since 2003, and have dropped their last three medal round meetings. It’ll also be an opportunity for Grachev to face off against his Brampton Battalion teammate, Cody Hodgson, who is currently tied for the tournament lead in points with Canadian teammate John Tavares with 3 goals and 9 assists for 12 points.

The Rangers’ two representatives at this year’s World Junior Championship face off for the first time in the second of two quarterfinal matches to be played in Ottawa on Friday. Evgeny Grachev enters the game with just one assist to his credit after Team Russia was shut out by Team Sweden, 5-0, in their final game of round-robin competition on Wednesday. Grachev was on the ice for two of Sweden’s four first period goals and missed the net on a beautiful 2-on-0 scoring chance in the second period. He finished with just one shot on goal in a game the Russians will hope to put behind them as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, Tomas Kundratek and the Czech squad won their final round-robin game, 10-2, over tournament whipping boys Kazakhstan. Kundratek added three more primary assists to his totals in the second period of Wednesday’s game, setting up teammate Jan Kana three separate times, twice on the power play. Only two defenseman have put up more points than Kundratek, who’s six points (all assists) currently tie him for third in points among defenseman in the tournament, and rank him third on the Czech team in scoring.

The battle of Ranger prospects kicks off Friday night at 7:30pm EST. The game is available on the NHL Network in the US and on TSN in Canada.

Gare Joyce has a good article at Sportsnet.ca on Russian star Nikita Filatov, who led Team Russia to an 8-1 victory over Slovakia on Tuesday afternoon with a 3 goal, 1 assist performance.  In the article, Filatov talks about the influence his “best friend in hockey”, Ranger prospect Alexei Cherepanov, had on him:

“We played together on the team that won the under-18s in Tampere [in 2007] and he was the best player on the ice,” Filatov says. “We were a confident team and the confidence started with Alexei. He really helped me a lot with my game and my life. It was such a big honour for me to play with him on teams in international tournaments. He was such a good guy and such a good friend. Every aspect of his life … he always wanted to be the best at whatever he did and I think he was. A unique man.”

Filatov wouldn’t comment on allegations that a performance enhancing substance was found in Cherepanov’s blood, saying only “I don’t want to comment on these things.  Probably it can be true, probably it can’t be true. It doesn’t matter. There is no bringing him back. It’s just sad.”

At this year’s World Junior Championship, Filatov is paired with another Ranger prospect, Evgeni Grachev, on Russia’s top line.  Here’s what the Columbus Blue Jacket prospect had to say about his linemate:

“I played with Evgeni the last two years and I really liked it,” Filatov says. “We are a good fit together. We’ve got Andronov on the right wing–very tough, very powerful. Gratchev is a big guy with good hands and he’s good in both ends of the rink. The game is much better for me when I’m with the big guys because [the opponents' defence] have to pay attention to them and it gives me room. We’re a tough line to play against.”

Grachev has just one point in three games in the tournament thus far, but was on the ice for five of Russia’s eight goals against Slovakia on Tuesday.  He set up the Russians’ second goal by carrying the puck up ice and deep into the Slovakian zone before dishing it Maxim Chudinov, who fed Maxim Goncharov for the shot from the point.  And he drove the net hard all game, causing a distraction in the crease on two other Russian goals.

The full game is available online on demand from TSN for those who’d like to watch.

The Rangers only other prospect in this year’s tournament, defenseman Tomas Kundratek, has three assists in three games, playing on the Czech Republic’s top defense pairing.  He picked up two of those assists, and added five shots on goal, in Tuesday’s 6-0 victory over Germany.

Ranger prospect Evgeny Grachev is writing a blog for US-based hockey web site IceDaily.com. His first post, which was written prior to Team Russia’s 5-1 exhibition loss to Team USA last Tuesday, was added to the site yesterday. In it, he talks about his Russian team, himself, his family, and life in Brampton, Ontario, where he plays for the Brampton Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League.

The roster has been finalized and Ranger prospect Evgeny Grachev and Team Russia kick off the 2009 World Junior Championship in minutes.  A live video feed is available from JustinTV.

Team Russia was outplayed by Team USA on Tuesday in Kingston, Ontario, falling 5-1 in their second and final warm-up game before the 2009 World Junior Championship gets underway on Thursday.  Ranger prospect Evgeny Grachev picked up the primary assist on the Russian’s only goal.

The American squad got off to a fast and furious start in the game, firing 15 shots in the first period and 20 through the start of the second before the Russians registered their first. Only the strong play of Danil Alistratov prevented the game from becoming a blowout early. But the young goalie, who’s played in 30 games for Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL this season, saw his luck run out in the second as Team USA’s Aaron Palushaj put two quick goals past him at 4:32 and 4:45. Alistratov gave one more up to James van Riemsdyk late in the second before being replaced in net by Vadim Zhelobnyuk for the third.

Team Russia scored its only goal of the game on the power play at 8:53 of the third period when Grachev fed Pavel Chernov with a “good pass” to make it 4-1. Colin Wilson topped off the scoring at 17:12 of the period to give the Americans their second victory in two exhibition games.

In addition to his assist Grachev also picked up a high sticking minor at 16:00 of the second.

USA Hockey has the story and box score from the game, along with video highlights (but only of the American goals). The Russian side of things comes from the Russian Hockey Federation.

Team Russia opens the tournament against Lavtia on Thursday.  Team USA plays its first match of the tournament on Friday against Germany at 3:30pm.  The game will be broadcast live on the NHL Network.

With the World Junior Championship set to get underway later this week, Kingston’s Whig Standard talked to Rangers draft pick Evgeny Grachev and Columbus Blue Jackets’ prospect Nikita Filatov about what the loss of Ranger first round draft pick Alexei Cherepanov means Team Russia following a team practice in Kingston on Saturday.

“He would probably be the best player on this team,” Filatov told the Standard. “Everybody here understands who Alexei was.”

“I think there will be a difficult moment during the championship,” Columbus’ sixth-overall draft pick in 2008 added, suggesting the team could have a meeting to discuss Cherepanov prior to the tournament.

“We will try not to think about it, but I think we will play for him, too,” said Grachev. “It was a really big loss for us. He would have been one of the leaders of this team and helped us with goal scoring and defensive play.”

As for his team’s chances, Grachev added “We have a really good team. We’ve got pretty good offensive players, defensive players and goalies and hopefully we will fight for a gold.”

Team Russia got their 2-game pre-tournament exhibition schedule underway yesterday with a 4-1 defeat of Kazakhstan in Oshawa. They face Team USA in another exhibition game in Kingston on Tuesday before opening the tournament against Latvia on Thursday.

UPDATE: The Russian Hockey Federation has finally updated their web site with (very few) details on last night’s exhibition game against Kazakhstan. Grachev picked up the third goal for the Russians in the 17th minute of the second period as they took a 3-0 lead after a scoreless first. Nikita Klukin, Sergei Ostapchuk, Grachev and Pavel Chernov scored for team Russia, while Alexander Kaznachaev scored for Kazakhstan. Andrei Yankov was in goal for Kazakhstan, while Sergei Gaiduchenko and Vadim Zhelobnyuk split the game in net for Russia.

Evgeny Grachev joined his Russian teammates in Kingston, Ontario on Thursday as they began their final week of preparation for the 2009 World Junior Championship. Before he left, he shared his thoughts on the tournament, his Russian teammates and their opponents with the Brampton Battalion web site.

The Russian team, sans the eight players already playing in North America this season, arrived in Kingston after spending the past two weeks training together in the Russian city of Novogorsk.  Head coach Sergei Nemchinov opted to bring three extra players with him to Canada, delaying the final round of roster cuts until December 24th.  The list of players who will be with the team in Kingston for their final week of pre-tournament preparation was released on Wednesday, and includes three AHLers that have been released for the tournament by their NHL teams (Nikita Filatov, Maxim Mayorov and Vyacheslav Voinov):

Goaltenders
Alistratov, Daniel
Zhelobnyuk, Vadim
Gaiduchenko, Sergei

Defensemen
Goncharov, Maxim
Voinov, Vyacheslav
Chudinov, Maxim
Golovkov, Igor
Pashnin, Mikhail
Kulikov, Dmitri
Tokranov, Vasily
Khafizullin, Dinar

Forwards
Filatov, Nikita
Chernov, Pavel
Kugryshev, Dmitry
Dadonov, Evgeny
Klyukin, Nikita
Korostin, Sergei
Grachev, Evgeny
Komaristy, Alexander
Petrov, Kiril
Potapov, Alexei
Dubinin, Artem
Klopov, Dmitry
Ostapchuk, Sergei
Andronov, Sergei
Mayorov, Maxim

Team Russia plays two exhibition games this week in preparation for the tournament, which opens on December 26th.  They face Kazakhstan on Sunday in Oshawa and battle Team USA in Kingston on Tuesday.

According to the Hockey News, that is.  They’ve included the New York Rangers’ prospect on The Hot List, their weekly compendium of minor league, junior, college and high school players they look forward to seeing play in the NHL one day. Here’s what they had to say about the Ontario Hockey League’s top rookie scorer:

Think of Grachev’s first North American season as a freight train. The 6-foot-3, 212-pound left winger may have started a little slowly, but now that he has found his game, he’s unstoppable.

“I’ve gotten used to the league,” Grachev said. “It’s more physical and more competitive every night.”

With his frame, however, fighting off checks has not been a problem for Grachev, who is now up to 33 points in 27 games for a loaded Brampton squad. The Russian, who certainly looks like a dangerous power forward already, has especially clicked with center and 2009 draft prospect Matt Duchene, whose speed and skills mesh well with Grachev.

“We have good line speed,” Grachev said. “He can feed me with pucks and I can shoot them on net.”

And how. The Battalion sit first place in the OHL’s Central Division and will likely have at least three players at the upcoming world juniors in Grachev, Duchene and Cody Hodgson.

Naturally, Russia-Canada will have some extra spice to it.

“It’s a special battle, it’s going to be exciting,” Grachev said, while cautioning the real prize comes on the podium. “Our goal is to win the gold medal, it doesn’t matter who we beat on the way to it.”

Grachev, who ranks third on his team in scoring behind Hodgson and Duchene, will be looked upon to carry the Battallion over the next ten days as the two Canadians participate in Canada’s World Junior Championship selection camp.  The 18-year old will join the Russian squad on December 21st when it arrives in Ottawa for the tournament.

The Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) has released a list of 30 players who have been invited to their 2009 World Junior Championship camp, to be held from December 7th through December 21st in Novogorsk. As expected, Ranger prospect Evgeny Grachev, the OHL’s Rookie of the Month, is included in the group. He’s joined by fellow Canadian Hockey League (CHL) juniors Andrei Loktionov, Dmitry Kurgashev, Sergei Korostin, and Sergei Ostapchuk. Nikita Filatov, Maxim Mayorov, and Vyatcheslav Voynov, all of whom are currently playing in the American Hockey League (AHL), are also expected to join the team, provided the federation is able to meet the insurance requirements set forth by their NHL clubs. Its unclear if any of the players currently playing in North America will be released in time to join the team for the camp, or if they will join the team when it arrives in Ottawa a week prior to the start of the tournament.

In addition, the team’s coaching staff, headed by former Ranger Sergei Nemchinov, has announced that Alexei Cherepanov’s number 7 will go unassigned in memory of the fallen winger, who was expected to star for Team Russia in this year’s tournament.

The 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship kick off in Ottawa, Canada on December 26th. On Tuesday the NHL Network announced that they will provide live, high definition coverage in the U.S. for all Team USA games, in addition to all games in the medal round.

Preliminary 2009 Russian Junior Roster

Goaltenders
Zhelobnyuk, Vadim
Gaiduchenko, Sergei
Alistratov, Daniel

Defensemen
Golovkov, Igor
Konev, Andrei
Goncharov, Maxim
Pashnin, Mikhail
Tokranov, Vasily
Khafizullin, Dinar
Vasiliev, Valery
Voinov, Vyacheslav
Chudinov, Maxim

Forwards
Kulikov, Konstantin
Klopov, Dmitry
Chernov, Pavel
Nikontsev, Anatoly
Karamnov, Vitaly
Komaristy, Alexander
Grachev, Evgeny
Andronov, Sergei
Loktionov, Andrei
Kugryshev, Dmitry
Klyukin, Nikita
Mayorov, Maxim
Korostin, Sergei
Ostapchuk, Sergei
Dadonov, Evgeny
Filatov, Nikita
Potapov, Alexei
Petrov, Kiril