Russia blanks Finland to reach semis
TORONTO — Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Telegin scored 1:19 apart in the second period and Russia beat Finland 3-0 on Thursday to set up a World Cup of Hockey semifinal against Canada — and knock out Team North America.
“The opportunity is huge,” Russian captain Alex Ovechkin said about facing Canada. “They have a pretty good team with solid players. We just have to match it.
“I played Olympic Games in [Canada] and everybody is going to be crazy. The atmosphere’s going to be unbelievable. It’s going to be a great match to play, to be involved in, to be in the stands and be able to watch.”
Evgeni Malkin scored in the third period for Russia (2-1-0), and Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves.
“It’s going to be a great, great challenge and we accept it,” Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said.
Tuukka Rask made 19 saves for Finland (0-3-3). Finland was winless for the first time in a senior tournament, scoring only one goal in three games.
“We had a good chance to succeed here, but you don’t score, you can’t win,” Finnish coach Lauri Marjamaki said. “We have to keep going and maybe analyze a little bit later. Just now, a little bit disappointing.”
Russian forward Pavel Datsyuk missed the preliminary round finale because of a minor injury.
“A loss for us, but we did well today,” Russian coach Oleg Znarok said.
Russia will face Canada on Saturday night. In the other semifinal, Sweden will play Team Europe on Sunday.
Finland nearly opened the scoring early in the second period when Mikael Granlund beat Bobrovsky glove-side, but rang a shot off the post.
Tarasenko finished off a give-and-go with Ovechkin for his second goal of the tournament at 3:42 of the second period.
Telegin picked up Vadim Shipachev’s feed and powered around Rask for his first of the tournament at 5:01 of the second.
Malkin scored his first of the tournament at 3:39 of the third period.
Tarasenko played on the Russian team that beat Canada to win the 2011 world junior title in Buffalo, New York.
“I think this is one of the greatest rivalries ever: Canada against Russia,” Tarasenko said. “We know how they play because we play in Pittsburgh before. They have a really good team, good players, [the] best players in the world so we need to be good in a couple days.” TORONTO — Left with nothing play for at the World Cup of Hockey, coach John Tortorella told his United States players to play a game for themselves.
They played hard, gave effort in a meaningless round-robin finale but still lost 4-3 to the Czech Republic on Thursday night. With an 0-3-0 record and a minus-6 goal differential, the U.S. finished seventh among eight teams, ahead of only Finland.
“The bottom line is we leave here with nothing,” Tortorella said. “Certainly we can’t be happy about that.”
Previous losses to Team Europe and Canada eliminated the Americans from contention. While Canada, Sweden, Europe and Russia prepare for the semifinals this weekend, the U.S. and Czech Republic played out the string in front of a half-empty arena.
Joe Pavelski, Justin Abdelkader and Ryan McDonagh scored for the U.S., which did not unravel in a meaningless game like it did in the 2014 Olympic bronze medal game. Ben Bishop allowed four goals on 20 shots in two periods, and Cory Schneider made seven saves in relief.
Petr Mrazek stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced to backstop the Czech Republic to its first victory. Milan Michalek scored twice and Zbynek Michalek and Andrej Sustr each had a goal.
U.S. players promised they wouldn’t mail it in with nothing to play for. A result of human nature, it felt like an all-star game with a lack of real physicality as everyone wanted to get through without getting injured.
“I thought some guys gave some really true efforts,” Tortorella said. “We just didn’t find a way to win the hockey game.”
Afterward, Tortorella broke from his usual routine and addressed the team.
McDonagh said the message was, “Keep your heads up, you’re all great players. You all represent your country to the best of your ability and you were a great group to be around.”