Buffalo State freshman Vadim Vasjonkin (Tallinn, Estonia) will play for his home country Estonia in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division I Group B World Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania from April 22-28.
Vasjonkin finished fifth on Buffalo State in scoring this season as a rookie with 24 points in 27 games, with nine goals and 15 assists. He tallied two goals and an assist in the Bengals’ 4-3 playoff victory over Potsdam, and scored eight of his nine goals over the final 12 games of the season.
Vasjonkin was born in Estonia and is bilingual in Russian and English. He first moved to the United States in 2012 to pursue an education at Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, Ill. His junior hockey career later took him to Boston and then to the Philadelphia Junior Flyers, where he was recruited to play at Buffalo State. A business major, he achieved a 3.46 grade point average in his first semester at the college.
This will mark the eighth time he will be playing for his native country in international play and the third-consecutive year he will play at the IIHF Group B World Championships. He previously competed with the U-18 and U-20 teams as well.
The six-team tournament will be played in round robin format with Estonia facing off against Ukraine, Japan, Lithuania, Croatia and Romania. The top team in the tournament will be promoted to Division I A in the 2019 tournament, while the last place country will be relegated to Division II A in 2019.
