Defending champions Russia have progressed to the final match of the Bandy World Cup after a solid 6-4 victory over Finland.
The judges were forced to divide the match into three periods instead of the usual two due to heavy snowfall in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan.And Sergey Firsov’s charges were better at coping with the difficult weather conditions. The sides went to the first break level at 1-1, with Ivan Maksimov opening the score for the Russians and Mikko Rytkönen equalizing for the Finns. But the two unanswered goals from Aleksey Dorovskih and Evgeny Ivanushkin in the second period gave Russia an advantage which their rivals just couldn’t close down. The world title holders added three more in the final part of the game before their took their foot off the gas, allowing Finland to end the match with a 6-4 scoreline. Russia’s opponents in the final will be Team Sweden, who took care of hosts Kazakhstan 5-4 in the other semisfinal game. The current Bandy World Cup is the first in the history of the sport to be held outside Europe.