EHT: Barulin stopped Finland

At Thursday 42nd Channel One Cup (formerly known as ROSNO Cup, Baltica Cup and Izvestia Award) started in Moscow with the game between Russia and Finland, while Czech Republic national team faced Sweden in Chomutov.

One hour before the game there was a special press conference with three presidents of national ice hockey federations: Vladislav Tretyak from Russia, Kalervo Kummola from Finland and Christer Englund from Sweden. Due to the Moscow traffic this conference was held after the first period.

The conference was dedicated to the outdoor game in Helsinki between Russia and Finland at 9 Feb, as a part of Swedish Euro Hockey Tour Stage.

“I congratulated Tretyak on re-elections to the State Parliament. It will be the first time, when Finnish team plays outdoor game for the last 50 years. I’m happy that Russian side easily accepted our offer,” Kalervo Kummola said.

Asking to the reporters Kummola noticed that it’s very difficult to predict the weather on a game day, but he hopes that it will be near -3 degrees.

“I remembered the game in Novosibirsk, when we played with -35 degrees, and puck divided into two after hitting the post. Outdoor hockey is faster than hockey on the artificial ice, that’s why I want that our players try to play there,” Vladislav Tretyak said.

Russia began the game very aggressive, at the first power-play Alexander Radulov and Konstantin Korneyev had a chance to score, but all their shots were stoned by Teemu Lassila. Than Lassila stopped several shots from Tereshchenko, which happened while flurries near the net. Finland played near 2 minutes 5-on-3 with Ilya Nikulin and Yevgeny Biryukov in the penalty box, but all attempts were broken by Russian d-men. With 3:58 remaining in the first Ilya Nikulin opened the scoring with a ricochet from Finland team captain Mikko Mäenpää.

“I have scored this kind of goal this season, it was a lucky goal for Russia,” Mikko Mäenpää told Eurohockey.com.

In the second Finland gained a game possession and dominated on the rink. The most active was left winger of the first line Tommi Huhtala with two great chances to score. But Russia again outshot team Suomi 11-6 and 22-12 after two.

Moscow loves hockey, when the national team plays, that’s why tonight “Megasport” made another straight sell-out with 14 000 spectators.

“I liked how here Russian team was supported, but I can say that Khabarovsk crowd is best where I ever played,” Mäenpää said.

In the first minutes of the third Russia gained a two-goal lead. Denis Kokarev did it himself, gaining the pass from Evgeny Bodrov, he made a spin behind the net and with backhand shot made it 2-0 at 42:40. With 4 minutes left in the third Vadim Shipachyov fought till the end and lying on the ice scored a third goal of Russian team this night. In last minutes Janne Jalasvaara made a hit on Ilya Zubov, Alexander Radulov decided to fight for his partner.

Kokarev celebrates his goal. Photo: Elena Rusko

“We were surprised by this fight, hockey is a game of passion and sometimes this kind of things happens” Mäenpää said.

Barulin stopped 19 shots and made a second shutout for team Russia.

“First of all, I congratulate Russia on the victory. They deserved to win, they played better than us. Russia began to play a more defensive style than ever. We had a chance to score, especially in the first period, but penalty-killing and the goalie helped the Russian team” Jukka Jalonen said at the press-conference after the game.

When Jalonen left the press-room Russian head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said that he can’t agree with his colleague that Russian team begin to play defensive hockey, he thought that his team played the right hockey.

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