World Cup. Canada - Russia - 5:3

Russia took on bitter rivals Canada in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey semi-final. Head coach Oleg Znarok was forced into replacing Pavel Datsyuk again, with defenseman Nikita Nesterov coming into the fourth line for his tournament debut.

It was a packed Air Canada Centre for this game and, predictably, it was Canada who made all the running. After a quiet few minutes, the hosts began to slowly up the pace, with Russia putting all focus on to defence. Ultimately, it was a horrible error at the back which enabled the Canadians to open the scoring – Dmitry Kulikov coughed up the puck, Sidney Crosby took up possession and calmly slotted beyond Sergei Bobrovsky. With that goal, Canada fed on their adrenaline and were unlucky to see Logan Couture and Shea Weber miss golden opportunities clean through.

Unfortunately, the one-way traffic continued in the second. Canada were crashing our net and we had Sergei Bobrovsky to thank for keeping us in the match. Sergei was a busy man, pulling off saves from all angles as Canada refused to let up. Nevertheless, our players managed to ride the storm and in an incredible turn of events, even took the lead. Nikita Kucherov netted on an odd man rush and minutes later, Evgeny Kuznetsov stuffed the puck in at point blank range.

Sadly, Canada’s Brad Marchand promptly made it a tied game, but Russia had smelt blood. Dmitry Orlov smashed the bar with a thumping slapper and, as a crazy second stanza drew to a close, Ivan Telegin was unlucky to see his wrister graze the left post.

The opening few minutes of the third stanza were always going to prove crucial. The match was on a knife’s edge and, disappointingly, the game was snatched out of Russia’s grasp. Brad Marchand scored with a long wrister early on, Corey Perry made the most of a goalmouth scramble and John Tavares slotted a rising wrister over Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove. Artemiy Panarin did grab a late consolation with the goaltender pulled, but it wasn’t enough. 3:5, Russia finish their World Cup campaign at the semi-final stage.

Match protocol:

Canada – Russia – 5:3 (1:0, 1:2, 3:1)

Goals:

1:0 Crosby, 07.40

1:1 Kucherov (Zaitsev, Malkin), 28.47

1:2 Kuznetsov (Telegin, Dadonov), 36.24

2:2 Marchand (Crosby, Bergeron), 37.36

3:2 Marchand (Crosby, Bergeron), 41.16

4:2 Perry (Couture, Vlasic), 45.48

5:2 Tavares (Getzlaf, Vlasic), 49.22

5:3 Panarin (Kulyomin, Kucherov), 59.51

Goalkeepers: Price – Bobrovsky

Shots on target: 47 – 34

Penalty minutes: 6 – 6

Hits: 28 – 11

24.09.2016. Toronto, Canada.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation