Semyon Varlamov (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Slumping Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was pulled after the first period of Colorado’s 6-3 loss to Minnesota Tuesday night, overnight (or Wednesday in his homeland) was named one of the three goalies on Russia’s preliminary 16-man roster for the World Cup of Hockey later this year.
Finland’s choices also were announced early in the morning, North American time, but the Avalanche — which doesn’t have any Finnish players on its NHL roster, but has 2015 first-round draft choice Mikko Rantanen playing at San Antonio — wasn’t represented.
The other six preliminary team rosters for the Sept. 17-Oct. 1 tournament in Toronto will be announced later Wednesday, and additional players will be named later. The other teams in the tournament are Canada, the Czech Republic, Sweden, United States, Europe and North America.
Russia’s other two goalies are Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Bluejackets and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bobrovsky and Varlamov divided the work for Russia and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
The rest of Russia’s preliminary roster:
FORWARDS
Artem Anisimov, Chicago Blackhawks
Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
Nikolay Kulemin, New York Islanders
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
Vladislav Namestnikov, Tampa Bay Lightning
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Artemi Panarin, Chicago Blackhawks
Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
DEFENSEMEN
Dmitry Kulikov, Florida Panthers
Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens
Dmitry Orlov, Washington Capitals
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei
