The 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship will be held in the Belarusian capital. The tournament will take place from 9 to 25 May. The Russian national team, as a result of the draw, got into group B. Its rivals at the preliminary stage will be the team of the USA, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
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The championship will be held in two arenas: Chizhovka-Arena and Minsk-Arena. The Russian national team will play in the second arena at the preliminary stage.
16 national teams will take part in the championship: 13 from the Old World, 2 from North America and 1 from Asia. The national team of Kazakhstan and Italy qualified for the championship from the first division, the rest of the teams - from the top division. The same teams took part in the 2012 championship, in which the Russians became champions.
Which hockey players got into the Russian national team at the 2014 World Cup
The coaching staff of the Russian national team, headed by the new coach Oleg Znarok, has already announced an expanded squad for the training camp before the World Cup. It includes 36 players. The training camp will begin on April 6, that is, the team will have exactly one month to “rub in” and prepare. The hockey squad will train at the base in Novogorsk, in the Moscow region.
Oleg Znarok included 8 players from the Kazan club "Ak Bars", 7 players from the St. Petersburg SKA and 5 hockey players from the capital "Dynamo". By the way, the new coach of the national team twice led Dynamo to victory in the Gagarin Cup.
Russian national ice hockey team at the 2014 World Cup: goalkeepers
Emil Garipov, Stanislav Galimov, Alexander Eremenko will defend the gates of the Russian national team at the championship in Minsk. The latter plays for Dynamo, Garipov defends the gate of Ak Bars, and Galimov - Atlanta.
Russian national ice hockey team 2014: defenders
The defenders in Minsk will be played by Mikhail Grigoriev (Torpedo), Nikita Zaitsev and Denis Denisov (both CSKA), Evgeny Ryasensky, Dmitry Kalinin and Maxim Chudinov (all SKA), Andrey Mironov and Gleb Koryagin (both Dynamo), Ilya Nikulin, Evgeny Medvedev and Vasily Tokranov (all Ak Bars), Alexander Kutuzov (Siberia), Roman Rukavishnikov (Atlant).
Russian national ice hockey team 2014: forwards
Vladimir Galuzin (Torpedo), Mikhail Varnakov, Alexander Burmistrovov, Alexander Svitov and Kirill Petrov (all Ak Bars), Anton Glinkin (Tractor), Ilya Zubov (Admiral) will act as forwards at the 2014 World Cup, Evgeny Dadonov (Donbass), Sergey Shirokov and Sergey Kalinin (both Avangard), Maxim Pestushko and Maxim Karpov (both Dynamo), Vadim Shipachev, Viktor Tikhonov, Artemy Panarin (all SKA), Enver Lisin and Nikolay Prokhorkin (both CSKA), Dmitry Kugryshev (Siberia), Fedor Malykhin (Avtomobilist).
It is worth noting that Oleg Znarok included Ilya Kovalchuk in the extended list. However, the hockey player hastened to refuse to participate in the world championship. He motivated his decision with an injury to be operated on. In addition, there are no hockey players on the list who are currently continuing to fight for the Gagarin Cup. Znarok noted that every hockey player from the extended list has a chance to go to Minsk and defend the honor of the national team. It remains to wish the guys good luck!
