RECAP: Welp. Russia Wins 6-2.

FINAL: Team Russia 6, Team QMJHL 2

BOISBRIAND, Que. – The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Subway Super Series woes continued on Monday night in Blainville-Boisbriand.

Team Russia defeated Team QMJHL 6-2 in Game 1 of the 2012 Subway Super Series. It was Russia’s fifth straight win against the ‘Q’ at the event, a streak that began at Harbour Station in 2010. Team QMJHL hasn’t beaten the visitors since 2009.

Russia grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the first and took the momentum. Even though Team QMJHL made it one-goal game early in the second, Russia would score three straight to basically ice the game.

Mikhail Grigorenko, Nail Yakupov, Maxim Shalunov, Mikhail Naumenkov, Alexandre Khokhlachev, and Valentin Zykov all scored for Russia. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevski was solid in the Russian net, making 31 saves for the win..

Xavier Ouellet and Jean-Sebastien Dea scored the lone goals for Team QMJHL. Jonathan Huberdeau recorded two assists. Etienne Marcoux made 21 saves in the loss.

Huberdeau and Nathan MacKinnon both finished the game with a -4 rating. Ouch.

Russia opened the scoring at 9:49 as Mikhail Grigorenko beat Etienne Marcoux. The visitors took a 2-0 advantage at 11:03 as Nail Yakupov sniped the disc past Marcoux.

Team QMJHL had two power plays in the opening frame but could not connect on either.

Xavier Ouellet made it a 2-1 game at 2:53 of the second period on a five-on-three power play. Jonathan Huberdeau showed his usual patience and then made a great pass to the Armada defenseman. Ouellet ripped the puck top shelf to cut the deficit to one.

Following multiple collisions in the neutral zone at 6:14, Maxim Shalunov entered the zone and sniped a shot past Marcoux to give the Russians a 3-1 advantage.

Following a faceoff win by Grigorenko, the puck went back to Mikhail Naumenkov who blasted a shot past Marcoux at 17:35 to make it a 4-1 Russian lead. That’s the way it would stand heading into intermission.

The QMJHL had some pressure on early in the third Five minutes in, Huberdeau had two great chances following MacKinnon faceoff wins but could not connect.

Alexandre Khokhlachev made it a 5-1 game at 9:11 on the power play as Team QMJHL lost possession of the puck in close.

On the power play, Ouellet made a long a pass to Huberdeau who fed Jean-Sebastien Dea at 14:39. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward went in alone and slipped the puck past the Russian ‘tender to make it a 5-2 contest.

Russia got the goal back at 17:23 as Valentin Zykov scored some goal. That would wrap up the scoring summary. There were a bunch of penalties handed out at 19:04 following some rough stuff. Didn’t matter. See you Wednesday night.

Final shots were 33-27 in favour of Team QMJHL.

NOTES: The on-ice officials wore awesome Movember themed uniforms… Jonathan Huberdeau and Nail Yakupov performed the ceremonial faceoff. They exchanged goodie bags… Russian coach had an unreal jacket… Nathan MacKinnon is from Cole Harbour… Ryan Tesink finished a -1.

NEXT GAME: Game 2 of the Subway Super Series is on Wednesday in Val-d’Or.