Krikunov team won the third victory at the World Hockey Championship

The Russian team won the third victory at the World Hockey Championship, which is taking place these days in Riga. On Wednesday, in their final match of the preliminary group stage, the wards of Vladimir Krikunov met with the Slovak national team.

Each of the first two periods did not reveal the strongest, RIA Novosti notes. In the majority, the Slovaks responded to Denis Kulyash’s goal with the exact throws of Tomash Susov and Andrei Collar, who distinguished himself in the minority. Evgeny Malkin restored the status quo shortly before the break.

In the second third, Danis Zaripov brought the Russians forward, but Ivan Blueberries realized a numerical advantage, and the identification of the winner of the match was postponed for the final period, which brought the luck of the domestic team: Alexei Mikhnov became the author of the decisive puck.

The result of the fight is 4: 3 in favor of the Russian national team, which will begin the struggle in the qualification group round with the most possible four points.

At the post-match press conference, Krikunov emphasized that Russian hockey players have not beaten the Slovaks for four years. “We are historically hard to play with the Slovak national team and it’s not just hard, we just lose them - since 2002 we have not won this team,” the Russian national team mentor noted.

“We knew that the enemy had a very good counterattack, and still missed seven pure counterattacks on their own gates,” Krikunov continued. “It is good that we were not so many in them.” According to the Russian mentor, for him the key moment of the match was the game in the numerical minority "5 by 3" in the last minutes of the second period. “I am grateful to the guys for surviving, while the three of them remained in the pure two minutes,” the coach noted. “It was probably a turning point, although we then missed one goal (from Ivan Blueberries), but still we survived.” “In principle, I am satisfied with both the game and that dedication, there is victory,” Krikunov summed up.

The Russian team will hold its next match at the World Cup on May 11, the Ukrainian team will be its rival.