Vitaly Kravtsov: Everyone played for Russia

The WJC goals were to win it and to show a good game. I went there to get a medal. Valeri Bragin tried to create a good team, so that everyone would fight for one another and nobody would pay attention to their own "I". Everyone played for Russia.

My whole family supported me in Vancouver, my father, my mother, brother and sister came there. It was so great to see them there because we all live in different cities and such meetings are rare. My father doesn`t give me any clues regarding ice hockey. Two years ago he said that I knew about hockey more than he did, so there was nothing left for him to tell me (laughs).  My family always supported me.

 We were sure that we would win over Czech Republic, Denmark and Switzerlad without much effort. We were as twice as much motivated before the game vs Canada. I think every player has a dream to win over Canada in Canada. Everyone was choked with emotions after the game. I think the most memorable game is the game vs Canada, not the bronze medals one.

We realised that we couldn`t make mistakes in the quaterfinals vs Slovakia. Last year we did, so we had to get to the next stage. Speaking for the game vs USA... Even Valeri Bragin said that sometimes you play better than your opponent and have problems with converting chances. And if you play worse, games can be won and goals can be scored. That what it was. Maybe we were worse in the first period but we won the second and the third for sure, but the score was 1-2. 

Everyone had fun and celebrated the win of the bronze medal game. The gold and the bronze are given for the win. The silver is the result of the loss, you can`t get many emotions from it.

I have received a lot of mesages from fans. I rarely answer, but I have read them all. They congratulated me, shared their emotions and wished positive things. The messages were from different cities of Russia! Of course, I`d like to thank everyone!