World Cup. Russia - Sweden - 1:2

The Russian national team began their 2016 World Cup of Hockey campaign against Sweden. No surprises were made by head coach Oleg Znarok, and Nikita Nesterov, Vladislav Namestnikov and Andrei Vasilevskiy were all scratched. Sergei Bobrovsky was our netminder, while Sweden were forced into playing Jacob Markstrom in place of the ill Henrik Lundqvist.

You could feel the nerves inside the Air Canada Center, and Russia struggled early on. Throwing their bodies around, Sweden were setting a physical tone to proceedings, and they prevented us from creating anything in their zone. While coming forward themselves, the Swedes were posing a threat, and we had to Sergei Bobrovsky to thank for keeping us level. The best chance fell to Mikael Backlund, who wristed against the blocker when clean through.

Little changed in the second stanza, and the Russian players weren’t coping with Sweden’s pressing. The opponents were beginning to turn the screw, and after another few superb Sergei Bobrovsky stops, they eventually made the breakthrough – on the powerplay, Gabriel Landeskog launched a thumping cannon into the net. Sadly. Sweden weren’t content with the one, and they promptly made it two - Victor Hedman joined the rush, and swept beyond the goalkeeper. Nothing was going Russia’s way, and Nikolai Kulyomin’s stunning miss from point blank range summed up the Russian mood.

Despite needing goals, Russia failed to get much going against their Swedish counterparts in the third, and it was all too comfortable for Sweden at times. Nevertheless, with the final minutes approaching, we did up the intensity, and after Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled for the extra skater, we got on the board. Alexander Ovechkin hung at the blue line, wristed through traffic, and he struck gold. All of a sudden, we had a lifeline, and we thought that we had sealed a dramatic comeback – Alexander batted the puck over the line, but after video review, the referees determined that the goal had been scored with the glove. That sealed the 2:1 win for Sweden, and Russia will now prepare to play North America.

Match protocol:

Russia – Sweden – 1:2 (0:0, 0:2, 1:0)

Goals:

0:1 Landeskog (Karlsson, Backstrom), 30.41

0:2 Hedman (Hagelin, H. Sedin), 32.52

1:2 Ovechkin (Malkin, Datsyuk), 59.27

Goalkeepers: Bobrovsky – Markstrom

Shots on target: 28 – 29

Penalty minutes: 8 – 6

Faceoffs: 33 – 30

18.09.2016. Air Canada Center, Toronto, Canada.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation