Slovenia being an equal rival, but loses to Russia

Team Russia, empowered by #11 Yevgeni Malkin, skated to the game pretty sharp. Firstly, Ilya Kovalchuk received a pass from Yevgeni Dadonov into a breakaway which he turned into a goal - 1:0. Only 36 seconds later, thanks to Nikolai Kulyomin`s emphassis in the goalie crease, Russia doubles its lead.

Suddenly, both Slovenian players and fans - so far quite active - turned passive. Mood at the north east corner of Adriatic Sea decreased even more sixty-four seconds before the horn while Slovenia played shorthanded: Dadonov ended up the Russia powerplay prematurely with a one-time shot - 3:0.

The intermission after twenty minutes of play helped Slovenia a lot - the second period went to them 1:2. At first in time 23:14, Anže Kopitar skated into the attacking zone and sent a slapshot mighty so much that Konstantin Barulin could not keep it in his glove. Eleven minutes later, the second Slovenian goal was similar, but now it is Ziga Pance who put his hands to the roof after a slapshot from the left.

This was not all from the second period. In-between of the two Slovenia goals, Artemi Panarin sent an amazing pass across the attacking zone to call Vadim Shipachyov to score easily. However regardless Shipachyov goal, the stocks of Team Slovenia were much higher after fourty minutes, than in the first period`s end.

Panarin attacking. Photo: Roman Kantor

But as it happens on the markets, value of stocks could vary a lot within minutes. The same happened to chances of Slovenia to earn some points early in the third period. Dadonov skated to the middle of attacking zone and using his wristshot, he changed the score to 5:2.

Only Slovenians did not want to lose that easy. They increased the tempo and for several times they locked the opponent in his defending zone like if it was not Russia. And the increasing pressure brought its fruits. Five minutes before the third horn, Robert Sabolic on the second attempt pushed the puck behind Bobrovski - 5:3.

Further efforts of Slovenia went idle, so the final score of game Russia vs. Slovenia is 5-3. However it could be considered a good result for Slovenia. But not so much for Russians, even though they performed their duty and grabbed three points to the standings.

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