Give the Russians some space, and they can make you pay. Hand them crucial turnovers and short-side goals, and you’ll go broke in no time.
With its World Cup life on the line for the second game in a row, Russia displayed both all-world skill and shrewd opportunism, downing Finland 3-0 on Thursday afternoon. The result means international hockey’s all-time classic rivalry will be reprised when Russia plays a semifinal game versus Canada on Saturday night.
This is Russia’s first trip to the final four of a best-on-best tournament since the 2006 Olympics in Italy.
“I think we controlled the game and we didn’t have any bad turnovers in the neutral zone,” said Evgeny Kuznetsov.
While much of the hockey world was hoping for a Russian loss so the lovable North American youngsters could skate through to the semis, Alex Ovechkin and Co. had no interest in accommodating those wishes. The Russian captain displayed some wonderful stickhandling while playing a little give-and-go with Vladimir Tarasenko on Russia’s first goal, the latter slamming home Ovechkin’s pass to give his team the lead 3:42 into the second period.
“Really good pass from Alex,” said Tarasenko, adding with a chuckle, “I just put the puck in empty net [which is] not so easy.”
For the most part, Pavel Datsyuk had been playing between Ovechkin and Tarasenko at the tournament. But with the veteran pivot sidelined by an undisclosed injury, Kuznetsov stepped into the breach.
“I think we have a good line right now and I hope we play even better next game,” Tarasenko said.
If Russia’s opening salvo was an example of first-line skill, the second — which came just over a minute later — spoke to the importance of contributions from the bottom half of the roster.
The play started when Finland’s Leo Komarov made a poor pass from his own end boards that was intercepted by Vadim Shipachyov, a player who only drew back in the lineup because of Datsyuk’s absence. Shipachyov made a quick feed to Ivan Telegin, who pulled away from Komarov, blasted his way through the top of Tuukka Rask’s crease and stuffed the puck into the net.
The big boys on Russia’s bench certainly took notice of the effort.
“I see so many teams who win the Stanley Cup or Olympic Games, they always have a fourth and third line that score a lot, they block shots, they almost best lines on the team,” said Kuznetsov. “If you want to win something, you have to have best four lines.”
Telegin, a former Ontario Hockey Leaguer who was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010, is a KHL player most North Americans are only now learning about. Even before scoring, Telegin was making a positive contribution thanks to a willingness to throw his six-foot-three body in front of shots. Even so, Tarasenko referenced some bad press around his teammate and suggested it was time for that to change.
“I think now he makes people talk good about him,” Tarasenko said. “He’s a great player, he did his job great and we’re happy to have him on the team.”
In all, the Russians blocked 17 shots in front of Sergei Bobrovsky, who continued his strong World Cup play. At the other end of the ice, Rask allowed the third-period backbreaker when Evgeni Malkin netted his first goal of the event on a shot that slipped between the Finn’s stick hand and the post.
After dropping their opener 2-1 to Sweden, the Russians feel they’ve improved with each game.
“We worked a lot in practices, we have a lot of meetings,” said Tarasenko.
The result is a date with the World Cup-favourite Canadians, who blasted Russia 7-3 in the quarter-finals of the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Anyone disappointed by not seeing Canada face the under-24 club shouldn’t be in the dumps long.
“That’s a dream game,” Kuznetsov said of the Canada-Russia tilt.
And with its entire lineup rolling, Russia appears well positioned to remind the world of that fact.
