Kevin Allen

USA TODAY Sports

Sabres prospect Nikita Zadorov scores twice for Russia

USA gives up two 5-on-3 goals after taking a 3-2 lead

Coach Don Lucia%3A %22It%27s disappointing because I thought our kids competed well%22

A World Junior Championships tournament that started richly for the USA ended poorly as the Americans were eliminated by a 5-3 loss to the Russians in the quarterfinals in Malmo, Sweden.

"It's disappointing because I thought our kids competed well tonight," U.S. coach Don Lucia told USA TODAY Sports via cell phone from Sweden. "I thought we did the things that we wanted to do, and asked them to do. But we had that five-minute segment when we went from being on the power play to all of a sudden being down twice 5-on-3 against that kind of skill."

The WJC is considered a preview of coming attractions for the NHL because it features the world's best teen-age players. Many of the players who play in this tournament eventually land in the NHL.

Buffalo Sabres' Nikita Zadorov scored two 5-on-3 power play goals, including the game-winner in the second period.

Stefan Matteau (New Jersey Devils) and Thomas Dipauli (Washington Capitals) had back-to-back penalties for hooking.and tripping. Zadorov made the USA pay for that with a booming shot from the point. Five seconds later, Steve Santini (New Jersey) was trying to get the puck out of his zone puck and shot it into the netting behind the other net. That's an automatic delay of game.

"It's a tough call because he was just trying to clear the puck," Lucia said.

Zadorov scored 56 seconds later to give the Russians the lead they never relinquished.

Nicolas Kerdiles (Anaheim Ducks) had given the USA a 3-2 lead at 16:51 of the first period. Ryan Hartman (Chicago Blackhawks) and Matteau also scored.

Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Andre Vasilevski struggled early in the Russian net, but seemed to refocus and play strong the rest of the game. He made 30 saves.

The Americans had been impressive in winning their first three games of the tournament, and then lost a tough 3-2 decision to Canada that cost the Americans the No. 1 seed. That forced the quarterfinal matchup against Russia, a program that is now 5-0 all-time against the Americans in WJC playoff games.

"We did a lot of good things here," Lucia said. "But what I told the guys who are returning, this reinforces that you have to stay with it and not take the penalty. When you get to the end, teams are pretty darn good. Both of our 5-on-3s were both almost two minutes long, and it didn't take long to score on either of them."