The International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2013 World Junior (U20) Championships have been taking place in Ufa, Russia, for the past week. The tournament just ended its preliminary round on Dec. 30. Relegation and playoff rounds begin on Jan. 2. (Keep in mind that Ufa, Russia, is 11 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the US & Canada, so 3pm Jan 2 there is 4am Jan 2 in Florida.)
The Lightning have 5 prospects playing in this tourney, 4 of them on Team Russia. [Note: The IIHF uses different spelling for both Sergeev and Vasilesvki. I am using the spelling that links to the SB Nation player pages.]
| Team | GP | Pts | +/- | SOG | SH% | PIM | |
| Nikita Kucherov (F) | Russia | 4 | 3-1-4 | +3 | 15 | 20.0 | 2 |
| Nikita Nesterov (D) | Russia | 4 | 0-2-2 | +2 | 6 | 0.00 | 0 |
| Tanner Richard (F) | Switz. | 4 | 0-4-4 | +1 | 7 | 0.00 | 0 |
| Artem Sergeev (D) | Russia | 4 | 0-1-1 | +1 | 4 | 0.00 | 0 |
Andrei Vasilevski, Russia, played 2 games, one a regulation shutout against Germany and one an overtime win against Slovakia. In total he gave up 2 goals on 75 shots for a 0.96 GAA and 0.973 SV%.
Team results for the Preliminary Round:
| Rk | Team | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF:GA | PTS |
| Group A | ||||||||
| 1 | SWE |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19:8 | 11 |
| 2 | CZE |
4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12:10 | 8 |
| 3 | SUI |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 16:14 | 6 |
| 4 | FIN |
4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 15:15 | 5 |
| 5 | LAT |
4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6:21 | 0 |
| Group B | ||||||||
| 1 | CAN |
4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21:8 | 12 |
| 2 | RUS |
4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13:7 | 8 |
| 3 | USA |
4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19:7 | 6 |
| 4 | SVK |
4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10:19 | 3 |
| 5 | GER |
4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4:26 | 1 |
Switzerland will meet Russia in the Quarterfinals at 7pm Ufa time (8am ET) on Jan 2. The winner of that game will play in the semifinals against either Canada or Sweden. The loser will play the loser of the Czech Republic-USA game for final placement (fifth or sixth).
For more information:
IIHF’s WJC home page
Boltprospects.com’s WJC articles
