Russia in seventh heaven!

Russia showed what the world's best players are made of. Maybe these are not the games where all the best players are present but I doubt that there is any team in the world that could have beaten Russia tonight. Work ethic, tempo, skills, team work - somehow this team reminded of the good old Soviet Union team from the eighties when only silver medal was what others could plan for.

Slovakia got exactly the start what they were looking for. After one minute Zdeno Chara's shot from the blue line went in. It looked like a very easy goal, there was no mask, no deflection and still Simeon Varlamov couldn't save it. Anyway this goal didn't bother the Russians much. They started to roll their offensive play again and again towards the Slovakian end. Especially the line Ovechkin-Datsjuk-Semin was on fire. How would you like that kind of a line in your team? The Slovaks couldn't do much under the pressure but threw the puck away and every once and a while tried one man rushes. After ten minutes Ovechkin broke through for him so typical from the left side. He could have shot himself but this year's Ovechkin passed to the middle where another Alexander, Semin, directed the pass in. Totally deserved equalizer. Russia continued their furious play the whole period and Slovakia's great goalie Jan Laco kept Slovakia in the game.

In the second period Russia put maybe one more tick in the tempo and made it all clear. Perezhogin, Tereshenko and Semin scored for Russia and even though there was "only" a three goal difference after the second period nobody really doubted anymore who would be the next world champion.

In the third period there were three more goals but the main point was to play away the remaining minutes so that Russia could start their party. If it was Malkin against Finland today it was the Ovetchkin-Datsjuk-Semin line who really made things happen. It was nice to see also Ovechkin skating like crazy upwards but also down to help defense. That was team work.

With Russia you always only hear speaking about their wonderful forwards but this team's heart and also coach Bilyaletdinov's big man was team captain defender Ilya Nikulin. He was the man to count on in defense.

A lot of credit has received also Russia's coach Zinetula Biljaletdinov. The former defender from the Tikhonov times has based his game on discipline and defense and that turned out to bring some success. Players respect towards Bilyaletdinov was shown nicely when they almost immediately after the final whistle went all to their coach and started to throw him in the air.

"Our coach is really important for us," says Alexander Ovechkin. "The whole atmosphere, the whole system. Everybody understood what we have to do to win. Everybody likes him and plays with heart. He is the best coach in Russia right now. I'm really proud to play for him."

Slovakia didn't have a chance in this game but they had a great tournament as well. The players didn't seem to be too disappointed after the final, everybody knew that this was a big thing to Slovakia and also a lot more than expected before tournament. There was also touching moment after the game when team captain Zdeno Chara put on Pavol Demitra's shirt respecting the late famous Slovakian forward who passed away in the plane crash last autumn.

Great games have now ended and they have the most dazling champion for a long time. Team Russia has earned all the respect and glory they will get.

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