In what may be considered the upset of the tournament, the 2014 Olympics host team has been eliminated from the tournament by Finland. Team Russia seemed to dominate play, but Tuukka Rask stood on his head and stopped 37 shots in the win.
Ilya Kovalchuk put the Russians on the board first with a goal less than eight minutes into the contest. Pavel Datsyuk assisted on the play.
It didn’t take long for Finland to respond, however, as Juhamatti AALTONEN evened the score only a minute and a half later on a pretty incredible individual effort. Late in the first, Teemu Selanne scored the eventual game winning goal as Finland took the lead 2-1.
“We started the game well and scored a goal but after that we made two mistakes, which resulted in two goals,” said Russian forward Alexander Ovechkin. “We tried to gather ourselves back but we were not able to do it.”
Early in the second period, Mikael Granlund tallied for Finland to give them a solid 3-1 lead. Assisting on the goal were Teemu Selanne and Kimmo Timonen.
Semyon Varlamov had started the game for Russia, but was pulled in favor of Sergei Bobrovski in the second period.
Despite outshooting Finland 14-5 in the final period, and dominating play, Russia could not gain any ground. The host team exits the Olympic tournament with a finish that is sure to be disappointing to the team and their fans.
Selanne, captain of the Finnish squad likes his teams chances in the Olympic tournament. He acknowledges that his team may not have the most depth, or most talented players, but likes where they’re at regardless. “In one game,” he said, “I like our chances against anybody.”
Finland will move on to play top seeded Sweden in the semifinals. Sweden earned their spot by easily defeating Slovenia 5-0 in their quarterfinal matchup.
