Russia to the final

24 May 2014 | Henrik Lundqvist

The first shift was a nightmare for Russia, but they recovered and comfortably beat Sweden 3-1 in the World Championship semi final.

Still undefeated, with nine wins in regulation, Russia has qualified for the 2014 World Championship final. But it looked real bad from the beginning of the semi final against Sweden.

Sweden got just the start they dreamed of. Oscar Möller got the puck from Joakim Lindström and got a clear way towards the net. He beat Sergei Bobrovsky five-hole and it was 1-0 Sweden after only 19 seconds.

After the goal Bobrovsky had a perfect record saving 22 shots. Anders Nilsson on the other end of the ice had a weaker game. Sure, he made 31 saves, but his actions were week at all three Russian goals. When Sergei Plotnikov tied it at 13:25 Nilsson lost balance and was completely out of position leaving an empty net for Plotnikov.

Sergei Shirokov took Russia ahead two minutes before the first intermission with a shot from between the circles using a defender as a screen.

Sweden's Oscar Möller was close to tying the game in the middle of the second period but Bobrovsky came up with the save of the game. Instead Russia got the 2-goal lead when Anton Belov beat Nilsson off a rebound.

The Swedes got a second goal, but it was ruled out as the net was forced out of position.

Denisov moves the net and saves a goal.
Photo: Roman Kucera

Sweden chased for more goals and pulled Nilsson, but failed to beat Bobrovsky again. Eleven seconds before the end Sweden's Mikael Backlund lost temper, charged Plotnikov and got ejected from the game.

Backlund was not popular among the Russian players after his last action.
Photo: Roman Kucera

After the buzzer there were abusive words and gestures between the benches and it remains to see which actions IIHF will take against Russian head coach Olegs Znaroks and Swedish assistant coach Rikard Grönborg.