Russia’s late turnaround dumps Canada

These two teams also met in the quarterfinals one year ago, when Russia was longing for a revenge for their heavy defeat at 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. This time, Russians were hoping to find a spark that was missing in their play in the previous games.

Canada started strongly and outshot their opponent 17-6 in the opening period. However, Konstantin Barulin, once again starting in the Russian goal, came up with a string of solid saves to keep the score goalless. Jonathan Bernier at the other end did not have that much to do, but when Russia got close, it was always dangerous. Tereschenko could not find the net from close range early in the game, Afinogenov’s attempt 11 minutes into the game was blocked.

Both teams were dangerous on breakaways and one of them led to the opening goal. At 25:32, Russia’s defense was caught napping as Jason Spezza slipped through, moving on goal and scoring in between Barulin’s pads. Moments later, Stewart’s slap shot hit the crossbar.

Russians stepped up the tempo and actually scored after 33 minutes, but Morozov’s joy was very short, as the play was stopped due to a puck hitting Mark Methot’s face moments before the Russian forward found the net.

Early in the third period, it was time for goal judge to step in as Ilya Nikulin’s fierce shot hit the frame of Canadian goal and bounced near the goal line a couple of times. After a long discussion, referees decided that the puck did not cross the line and the score remained 1-0.

Just as Russian patience seemed to have run off, Aleksei Kaigorodov stole the puck during Canadian power-play, burst past Canadian defense and scored with a nice wristshot towards the far post. Suddenly, a majority of Russian fans let themselves be heard and cheered their team forward.

"I am so happy, I cannot even describe it. I wanted to keep the puck little longer and not to ice it to save some time. And when I had a chance to move forward, I did it. It was my most important goal ever," smiled Kaigorodov.

With seven minutes to go, Radulov showed great vision, lined up a pass in front of goal and Ilya Kovalchuk’s one timer turned the game around. Shocked Canadians tried to push for an equalizer, but Russia held firm even during final seconds when Canada pulled their goalie.

"It is not very profitable for this kind of tournament that two such great hockey nations meet in the quarterfinals, because one of those teams has to leave for home," admitted Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov. Bykov and his players could take some pride from the praise they received from Russia president Dmitri Medvedev via Twitter.

Bykov's counterpart Ken Hitchcock praised the quality of the game. "It was a very emotional and tense game, hard played from both teams. I think the difference was that some of the best Russian players stepped it up in the third period when they needed to and played very well. It was by far the best game I`ve seen as a coach in the tournament and both teams deserve a lot of credit for it."

Russia will meet Finland in tomorrow’s semifinal game. The other pair is Czech Republic and Sweden.

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