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Russia fails to defend Ice Hockey World Champions title
Published: 24 May, 2010, 01:15
Edited: 25 May, 2010, 22:29
Czech Tomas Rolinek scores his team’s winning goal (RIA Novosti / Vitaliy Belousov)
(3.0Mb) embed videoTAGS: Sport, Malkin, Ovechkin, Hockey, World cup
The Russian hockey squad has failed to defend their hockey world champions title, going down to Czech Republic with a 2-1 scoreline in the final game on Sunday.
After winning all of their games in regular time, defending champs Russia were considered clear favorites in the final against Jagr and Co, who squeezed into the decisive by-game only by shootout wins over Finland and Sweden.
Aleksandr Ovechkin and Sergey Fedorov missed the Russian training session in the morning due to small injuries, but they were both in the lineup for the game at Lanxess Arena in Cologne.
As well as another forward, Nikolay Kulemin, who received a match penalty in the semis against Germany on Saturday, but avoided more serious sanctions from hockey officials.
The teams had little more than 24 hours of rest ahead of the crucial game, but Russia’s coach Vyacheslav Bykov said: “The final is a final. We have to pull out additional emotions”.
But the Czechs delivered a shock start to the match, taking the lead after just 20 seconds. Jaromir Jagr found Jakub Klepis with a clever pass from behind Semyon Varlamov’s goal and forward Slavia Prague fired in from close range, 0-1.
Russia put their rivals under serious pressure straight after that. Sergey Fedorov hit the post; Maksim Afinogenov had three good chances to equalize. The Red Machine forced the Czechs to grab three penalties, but the score didn’t change in the first period.
Pavel Datsyuk, eventually, put the puck in the net in the very end, but the goal was ruled out by the referees, who needed to watch the replay to make sure it was scored after the period has already ended.
The course of the game didn’t change much in the second 20 minutes. Russia kept testing keeper Tomas Vokoun, while Vladimir Ruzicka’s men continued looking for chances in counterattacks. And they found one with a minute remaining in the period. Ovechkin and Fedorov collided on the Czech half and lost the puck, which allowed captain Tomas Rolinek to make it 0-2.
In the third period, defender Aleksey Yemelin received a match penalty for a rather doubtful fault on Jagr.
Russia played a man down for seven minutes in a row, but still managed to deliver dramatic final minutes to all of the championship’s viewers. Only the goal from Datsyuk came too late, with only 36 seconds to play.
Bykov’s men were searching for an equalizer till the final second, but the 2-1 scoreline remained, allowing the Czech Republic to become the 2010 Ice Hockey World Champions.
23.05.2010, 00:53
No under-table games anymore – KHL chiefRussian hockey has received a boost with the creation of the KHL, which aims to keep the nations' top players interested in playing at home. Aleksandr Medvedev, the KHL president, spoke to RT about its future. |
24.05.2010, 13:22
“Any medal except gold leaves bitter taste” – BykovRussia’s hockey coach Vyacheslav Bykov says he and his players are disappointed with the silver medals they received after losing to the Czech Republic 2-1 in the World Championship finals. |
If you are sportsmen ,the pride is in playing ,whether you win or lose,leave all the other morons on the planet ,to make poltical issues out of sport.
Russians played great game, they were better team for most of the first two periods. They did not play that well in the third period, until Emelin was sent out of game and Czechs played their power play very passively. After that Russians dominated again for the rest of the game, just could not score more than one goal. Luck was not on Russians side, post was hit twice by their players, they scored a goal just second after the end of first period. The referees were a disappointment. Lot of players got away with evident fauls and even though it happened on both sides, it looks like Russians were the ones harmed more by these decisions. Have to say I admire how Russian players and coaches handled the situation and did not say a single word against referees in the media after the match. On the other hand, I do not like way they behaved with their medals, to put them away immediately. Yes, it is always disappointing to lose, especially in finals and when you played so well and hard. But is not that the reason victories are so appreciated? Because you cannot win every time? Because sometimes you lose in a very tough way in the very end of the tournament? Russians will have another chance next year and they will be the favorites again. And they will also have great motivation after this year.
If you want to win, you must score more goals then rival...It is reason why Czechs have won!!!