Translated material
Champion Verification
The Russian team will play against the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals
The second group stage of the World Hockey Championship has ended. The Russian national team, which lost only one point in six matches, faced its eternal opponent, the current champion Czech Republic, in the quarterfinals, which yesterday lost to the Americans - 1:3. Whether our team can continue to fight for medals will be known on Thursday, May 18th. On the same day, Belarus and Finland will fight for a place in the top quartet. A day earlier, in the first round of the playoffs, Sweden will meet against the USA, Canada will play with Switzerland or Slovakia, which could overtake the hockey players from the country of cheese and watches only thanks to the victory over Ukraine late yesterday evening.The last match against Sweden at the preliminary stage did not have any tournament significance for the Russians, but head coach Vladimir Krikunov’s charges had no intention of turning this game into a training session. Krikunov is considered a specialist in Tre Krunur, which means that what he earned over several seasons by the successful performance of the teams led by his mentor against the Scandinavians had to be supported.
The account was opened already in the second shift. The only NHL player in our ranks, forward Alexander Ovechkin, flying around the court as if he were not behind the hardest championship of the overseas league, managed to finish off after the solo pass of his partner in the trio Nikolai Kulemin. This goal was the ex-Dynamo player's fifth in the tournament, and before the playoffs he is one goal behind Canadian Sidney Crosby, with whom the Russian was so often compared throughout the NHL season.
Maxim Sokolov, who was announced during the competition, took his place in the Russian goal for the first time at the championship. The St. Petersburg goalkeeper recently underwent knee surgery, and if he had not played in Riga, no one would have thrown a stone at him. Nevertheless, Maxim was very eager to perform in Latvia and arrived in Riga even without a guarantee that he would get a place in the lineup. Sokolov played the match with the Swedes quite well, but it was still felt that he had not yet regained his previous form. The next three goals were scored using a numerical majority. Michael Samuelsson scored against the opponents with an accurate low shot, while the Russians were put ahead by Alexei Mikhnov, whose scoring instinct did not let him down. In tennis style, he volleyed home the puck, which had bounced off the crossbar after Sergei Zhukov's throw.
A little over a minute before the break, Zhukov went to the penalty box. The punishment from the Swedes came already in the second 20 minutes, 15 seconds after the throw-in. Samuelsson scored a double, clicking from the blue line straight to the top corner. Having caught the courage, the Scandinavians take the lead after a couple of minutes - the protracted siege of Sokolov's goal, despite the incredible efforts of the goalkeeper who repels one shot and the other, ends with the jubilation of “Tre Krunur”.
When the Russians found themselves in the role of catching up, the game became tougher. The penalty box was almost empty until the end of the second period. For 110 seconds, our team played with five of us against three opponents, but the Swedes survived. Then Henrik Zetterberg and Ilya Nikulin, Johan Franzen and Kirill Koltsov received mutual deletions. Towards the end of the match, the Russians increased the pressure on the Swedes' goal. The Scandinavians sometimes began to play to hold the score. The Russians were helped out by Mikhnov, who showed agility in the enemy's patch.
“I’m dissatisfied with my game,” Sokolov admitted after the match. - It was not necessary to concede the first goal, and in general there were plenty of mistakes. I hope that in the two training sessions remaining before the start of the playoffs, I will improve my fighting shape.” Krikunov was pleased with the result: “We earned a point, showed a good game, tried Sokolov. True, I haven’t decided yet who will be the main goalkeeper for the playoffs. Well done guys, they didn’t think about any tournament situations, they were in a good mood for the match and wanted to look decent. In principle, I didn’t make any revelations for myself based on the results of the group stages. The coaching staff knew about some advantages and disadvantages of the team, some problems remain, but there is more good - we still haven’t lost a single match.”
Group "E"
| 1. Canada | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 28--10 | 8 |
| 2. Finland | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 17--7 | 7 |
| 3. USA | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11--10 | 6 |
| 4. Czech Republic | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14--12 | 6 |
| 5. Latvia | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3--21 | 1 |
| 6. Norway | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3--16 | 0 |
Group "F"
| 1. Russia | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 22--11 | 9 |
| 2. Sweden | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 17--15 | 6 |
| 3. Belarus | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 16--10 | 6 |
| 4. Switzerland | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12--15 | 4 |
| 5. Slovakia | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11--10 | 3 |
| 6. Ukraine | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4--21 | 0 |
Results of the latest matches: Canada - Finland - 4:2, Russia - Sweden - 3:3, USA - Czech Republic - 3:1, Belarus - Switzerland - 2:0. The Latvia-Norway and Ukraine-Slovakia meetings ended late yesterday evening.