Russia wins after two consecutive losses

Again Russia started strong and fired towards the net heavily, but their offense was ineffective throughout the first period. Slovaks seemed shocked by how Russia started the game that they called a time out midway through the first period. Something you certainly don't see every day.

But, it woke them up. Slovakia finally started playing, they were aggressive and played high forecheck and even produced some promising plays. Neither team could score, though.

Alexander Radulov and Ilya Kovalchuk scored twice in a span of 6:08 while Radulov added an assist.

At 25:36 Yevgeni Medvedev finds Radulov in front of the net, who didn't have much problems putting the puck behind Jaroslav Janus. At 31:44 it was already 2:0.

Janus between the pipes for Slovakia finished the game with 86.96 SVS% on 24 shots. His mistake at 44:48 led to Russia's third goal of the game to close the matchup and give Russia another 3 points.

Fifteen seconds before heading for the second intermission, when some of the fans already started leaving the stands to be the first ones to buy hot dogs or beer, a pass towards Ilya Nikulin on the blue line inside the Slovak zone went out, Branko Radivojevic took immediate action and cut the Russian lead to only a goal.

Ilya Bryzgalov on the other side of the ring was brilliant, allowing only one goal on 24 shots and recording 95.83 SVS%.

In hindsight, it could have gone bad if Slovakia took advantage of Ilya Kovalchuk's reckless high sticking on Michal Sersen when he tried to skate past him. Nevertheless, Russia played an extremely concentrated two minutes of penalty kill not allowing a single shot from the Slovak side.

Sbornaya komanda finally won after two consecutive losses and is back on track. Ilya Kovalchuk was the best Russian player while Branko Radivojevic earned the same title on the Slovak team.

Video courtesy of International Ice Hockey Federation

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