Slovenians were close to overtime, but Radulov refused the shame

Russia took the lead in a power play and then managed to survive 1:52 in three men against five. Slovenia played an awful two-men advantage, could not get into their offensive zone in first 90 seconds and made a pure single shot.

Also Russians had many problems with combining and Andrej Hocevar was outstanding in the net. Slovenia had one more long 5-on-3 situation in the start of the 2nd period, this time 89 seconds. Rodman`s and Ticar`s lines took many shots this time, but it was Andrej Hebar who tied the score in the middle of the game.

Russia took a lucky lead one more time, when Hocevar did not see Maxim Afinogenov`s slow shot from the blue line, but Bostjan Golicic tied the game one more time in the start of the 3rd.

When Dmitri Kulikov and Evgeni Artyuchin scored two goals in 38 seconds span in the 47th minute, the game seemed to be decided. But it was not. 28 seconds later Golicic scored right after the face-offs and four more minutes later Rok Pajic tied the game.


Alexander Radulov got today's game-winner
Photo: Roman Kucera

Then Slovenia played too passive and Alexander Radulov rebounded a shot from the crease and scored the winner. Slovenia had one more good chance to tie the game, but it was Sergei Zinoviev who added a 6th Russian goal 38 seconds to go. "Playing against Russia is always a big challenge for us. We were all excited to have a chance to play against those superstars. Right now I am proud and I would even say double-proud that we showed we can play an equal hockey with such a team," said Slovenian coach Matjaz Kopitar after thegame, in which Slovenia outshot Russia 35-25.

"The game was enjoyable for the spectators, but definitely not for the coaches. There are not bad teams in the tournament. If you start thinking this way, you start losing the games," said a Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov.

 

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