SOCHI, Russia – Tears for Mother Russia. The dream of matching Canada’s Golden Games is over.
Teemu Selanne, Tuukka Rask and a group of overlooked Finns moved into the Olympic semifinal on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory at a disbelieving Bolshoy Ice Dome. A raucous, flag-waving crowd continued to chant “Shaybu! Shaybu!” in the waning minutes but the goals simply would not come.
Questions, there will be many. Everything from Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s trapping system to a weak defence to the coach’s decision to start goalie Semyon Varlamov in the must-win quarterfinal is sure to be examined.
Ultimately, the better team won.
The Finns may have been hit hard with injuries leading up to and during this event, but they remain a fast-skating group that plays a patient system. Having Rask, one of the top goaltenders in the world, certainly helps, too.
Early on, everything seemed to be falling into place for the Russians. The team had spent considerable practice time working on a struggling power play in recent days and Ilya Kovalchuk promptly gave them a 1-0 lead with the man advantage thanks to a rocket of a one-timer at 7:51.
But Juhamatti Aaltonen, who plays for Karpat in the Finnish league, responded with a nice individual effort before Mikael Granlund roared past Slava Voynov and fed Selanne to make it 2-1 before the first intermission.
For Selanne, that made him the oldest man ever to score at the Olympics at 43 years 261 days – eclipsing the mark he established five days earlier. He’s now guaranteed two more chances at bettering it again. Granlund later scored from Selanne to chase Varlamov from the net in favour of Sergei Bobrovski.
What a disastrous finish for the Russians. Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin each scored in the tournament opener against Slovenia but didn’t find the back of the net in any of the other four games. Carrying the hopes of a nation, just like Team Canada did in Vancouver four years ago, the Russians carried enormous expectations. The only difference is that they failed to deliver on them.
Everyone expected more. Even Swedish coach Par Marts took the unusual step of predicting a victory for Russia after his team moved onto the semifinals earlier Wednesday.
Instead, the Swedes will be getting a familiar – and motivated – rival in Friday’s semifinal matchup.
Russia is out. And the race for gold is on.