ILYA KOVALCHUK – 400!
Yesterday Ilya Kovalchuk netted his 400th goal in his professional career in his 50th match for the Russian national team.
Sport Express Daily May 12, 2010
New Jersey forward Ilya Kovalchuk played his jubilee 50th match for his national team yesterday and was voted the best player of the team in the World Championship game against Kazakhstan (4:1).
“I felt much better and the team demonstrated hockey of higher quality than in the previous match against Slovakia”, Kovalchuk said. “We created a lot of scoring opportunities and played more reliable”.
“It’s not so important who are your partners in the national team. Afinogenov and Kulemin are in excellent form, and I think they played very well”.
“It’s great that Pavel Datsyuk is coming to Germany to join us, as it’s perfect reinforcement of our team. Pavel is one of the best centers in the world”.
“Kazakhstan played well against us, and it was not an easy match for Russia. It became easier to play after we scored a goal on powerplay”.
“I would have given award for the best player of the game to Alexandr Eremenko, who saved us many times. He is not to blame for conceded goal”.