Karjala Cup. Russia - Finland

Today on the 3rd of November, the Russian national team will start out at the Karjala Cup in Helsinki, Finland. The tournament is recognised as the first stage of the Euro Hockey Tour.

Most recently, these two countries met at the World Cup of Hockey, with Russia taking a 2:0. However, the teams today will be totally different, with only Finnish goaltender Mikko Koskinen being a member of that World Cup squad. Indeed KHL fans will know Mikko from his performances with SKA Saint Petersburg, and plenty of familiar faces such as Teemu Hartikainen, Atte Ohtamaa and Juuso Hietanen will be on show for the Finns.

Russian head coach Oleg Znarok opted to chose a young roster for this competition, leaving out leading figures such as Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. It's a real opportunity for the more youthful players to show what they are made of, and young goaltender Ilya Sorokin, who took bronze at the 2016 World Championship is expected to take his place in net. The oldest players of this team are Bogdan Kiselevich and Stepan Sannikov (26), while Yegor Korshkov, Pavel Kraskovsky and Andrei Svetlakov are 20 years of age. Incidentally, all three were a member of the silver medal winning team at the 2016 World Junior Championship in Finland.

The Russia - Finland match will begin at 19.30 Moscow time inside the Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland. Match TV will broadcast live in Russia.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation