In Kamloops, B.C. on Thursday night, there was one player taking the Sandman Centre ice who was familiar to the WHL fans in attendance.
That was Red Deer Rebels defenseman Alexander Alexeyev.
While Alexeyev is no stranger to throwing on the Russian national sweater, he had yet to represent them in any form of the biggest U20 hockey tournament in the world.
The Washington Capitals 2018 first-round pick played for Russia at the U18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2016 and played for them at the Canada-Russia Super Series last year and this season.
The native of St. Petersburg is finally on the verge of playing at the World Juniors for his home country.
On Thursday, he started his World Juniors with a bang. He sniped a shot by USA goalie Spencer Knight 9:28 into the first period.
Alexeyev brightened up when asked about the goal, but gave all the credit to his teammate, who set him up with a nice pass.
“I got a good pass from my teammate and just closed my eyes and shot it and scored,” Alexeyev said.
Fans of the Rebels can be forgiven if they don’t believe the skilled blue liner. He has seven goals in 30 games this season, already matching his career high, set last season, often scoring with a skillful looking snipe.
As for the pre-tournament game, Russia got out to a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes, but fell 3-2 to the US.
“We had a pretty good start. In the second period we played pretty good offensively and defensively. In the third period we got a little disrupted and in our d-zone we lost some players and they scored.”
While the game will not count in the standings, Alexeyev knows the importance or earning the confidence of the Russian coaching staff in game play.
“Coach is looking for players who can play the power play, PK and that kind of stuff. They are also looking for leaders who can play in the last couple of minutes.”
He also put on his scouting hat and credited the USA U20 team with being aggressive in the offensive zone when Alexeyev and his d-men had the puck.
“They have a good fore-check and jumped on us really quick. We need to learn from this and find ways to do better and beat them.”
Alexeyev was not on the team that fell to the USA in the quarter-finals last year 4-2, but he still dismissed any looking back.
Snipe from WSH prospect Alexeyev tonight. Dman has 6 goals in 12 WHL games this season. pic.twitter.com/999v6roKDg
— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) October 24, 2018
“We don’t really look at last year, it is the past so we have to focus on right now and we just keep our focus on this and play our best game.”
While the host Canadians are the favorites to repeat as champions, Alexeyev knows who took home Gold in 2018 does not influence much in the 2019 World Juniors.
“Doesn’t matter who won last year, they still have to beat some really good teams. We just need to play our game and do our best.”
Alexeyev and Russia are in Group A with Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Switzerland and their tournament starts on December 27th against Denmark. A date on New Year’s Eve against Canada looms as well.
Their last pre-tournament game will be in Burnaby, B.C. against Switzerland. They will then go on to Vancouver for the games that count.
