ROC star Nikita Gusev: Top things to know

Those familiar with recent Olympic ice hockey history will be well aware of ROC's Nikita Gusev.

The 29-year-old scored a tournament-high 12 points at PyeongChang 2018, including four (two goals, two assists) in the gold medal triumph against Germany.

In that most thrilling of encounters, Gusev scored in the last minute of regulation to send the game into overtime, before setting up Kirill Kaprizov's golden goal.

As the wing returns to help ROC defend their Olympic title, here’s what you should know about the man they call 'Goose'.

To be dominant on the ice in hockey, you need to be able to skate hard.

It may be surprising to know that Moscow-born Gusev didn’t start out on the surface with a stick in one hand.

“My hockey journey started out a bit strangely,” confessed Gusev to the International Ice Hockey Federation. When I went to the rink, I saw some other guys playing hockey and immediately understood that this was what I wanted to do with my life.

"I kept up the figure skating for a couple of weeks, then I joined the Beliye Medvedi hockey team.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

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In 2009, Gusev played his first year in Russia's Junior Hockey League (JHL) for Krasnaya Armiya and showed his talent straight away.

Averaging over a point per game, he was selected for the JHL All-Star Game and then moved up to Krasnaya's parent club, KHL giants CSKA Moscow.

The forward was unable to pin down a regular spot in his home town club and ended up being shipped out on loan several times before eventually joining rivals SKA St. Petersburg in 2015.

Before that move, he was selected in the seventh round of the 2012 NHL Draft by the Tampa Bay