Post Game Thoughts from the Hosts

Team Canada's Austin Carroll (15) is stopped in front of
the net while his line mate Malcolm McKinney looks for
a follow up chance against the Russian Red Star team.

Earlier today (yesterday in Russia), Team Canada suffered an exhibition game loss but also gained the respect of their first opponent in the International Tournament. The Unified MHL Team posted a 9-2 victory after building up a 4-0 lead before Canada could respond in the second period. The one thing that stood out was Canada's hunger, fight and unwillingness to concede the loss.

"I've never played with the Canadians. I really liked it, (they are a) good attacking team and they always impose the fight," said Albert Konozov in a post game interview. "It is known that Canadians have always played to the end and they fought (to the end) tonight."

Konozov is a forward on the Unified MHL team also being referred to as the Russia Red Stars. Playing with the SKA St. Petersburg youth team in the MHL, the twenty year old forward finished the 2010-11 season with 55 points (27G, 28A) and 66 PIMs. In his post game interview he went on to say that he expects to see an improved Canadian team for their first game of the International Tournament.

Team Canada and the Unified MHL Team will open the Tournament at 3:00pm (4:00am PDT) on Friday April 15th. Team Canada's second game will be the feature game on Saturday April 16th with a 6:30pm (7:30am) scheduled start time against the Russian National Team. Canada will then finish their round-robin schedule with a game against Team Slovakia at 1:00pm (2:00am) Sunday April 17th.