Russia's senior women national team will play for bronze at the Nations Cup

The senior Russian women's national team have been competing in a Nations Cup tournament in Austria and Germany. Head coach Alexei Chistyakov's girls have two wins from three games, but will have to battle for bronze after Finland and Canada have qualified for the final.

Russia begun the tournament with a thumping 8:3 victory over Switzerland a match which saw Ekaterina Smolentseva net two goals. However, unfortunately, the crucial loss came against Finland. Despite holding an early two goal lead, the Finns came back at our players, scoring three unanswered markers to earn a vital 3:2 win.

Nevertheless, another big triumph in a match with Austria 5:2 has meant that Russia's women do have a chance to take a bronze medal away from the tournament! The deciding match will take place on January 7th in Germany. Puck drop is at 15:30 local time.

Match protocols:

Russia - Switzerland - 8:3 (3:0, 3:1, 2:2)

Russian goals:

1:0 Smolentseva (Shokhina), 10.20

2:0 Shokhina (Shtaryova, Lobova), 14.07

3:0 Dergachyova, 19.47

4:0 Batalova (Smolentseva, Dyubanyuk), 22.19

5:0 Shtaryova (Kadirova, Shokhina), 23.30

6:1 Sosina (Batalova), 39.06

7:2 Dyupina, 51.02

8:2 Smolentseva (Shibanova), 52.38

Russia - Finland - 2:3 (0:0, 2:2, 0:1)

Russian goals:

1:0 Sosina (Smolentseva), 27.08

2:0 Dergachyova (Shtaryova), 35.18

Russia - Austria - 5:2 (3:0, 0:1, 2:1)

Russian goals:

1:0 Dergachyova (Goncharenko, Ganeeva), 05.06

2:0 Smolentseva (Shibanova, Batalova), 14.21

3:0 Sosina (Shibanova, Smolentseva), 19.58

4:1 Shtaryova (Dyubanyuk, Sosina), 49.45

5:1 Sosina (Dergachyova), 53.40

Russian Ice Hockey Federation