Russians top Czechs to reach final

gangneung — Vasili Koshechkin recorded a shutout to lift the Russian men past the Czech Republic 3-0 on Friday, giving them a chance at their first Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey for more than a quarter of a century.

In a rematch of sorts from their last shot at gold in Nagano in 1998, the Russians turned the tables on the Czechs, who then foiled their hopes by beating them 1-0 on a brilliant goaltending performance by Dominik Hasek.

It was Russia’s netminder who dominated on Friday with Koshechkin turning aside 31 Czech shots in his second shutout of the Games.

“He’s been our best player this tournament,” Russian forward Mikhail Grigorenko said of Koshechkin. “He’s just been making a lot of saves. He made some huge saves tonight, and he was good.”

Koshechkin has the tournament’s lowest goals against average at 1.08 and has stopped more than 95 per cent of shots put on the Russian goal.

The Russians, playing as the Olympic Athletes from Russia because of a doping ban, won thanks to second-period goals by Nikita Gusev and Vladislav Gavrikov less than a minute apart and a smothering defence. It was a cautious, tight-checking game before a crowd dominated by jubilant, flag-waving Russian fans, many of whom had come directly from seeing teenage figure skater Alina Zagitova deliver the country’s first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games.

After a scoreless first period, the Russians broke the deadlock midway through the second period. Pavel Datsyuk, the Russian captain and two-times Stanley Cup winner with the Detroit Red Wings, came in on the right wing and fed the puck across the goal mouth to Gusev, who fired a wrist shot behind Pavel Francouz.

Ivan Telegin then swept into the Czech zone and back-handed it in front of the goal to Gavrikov and he redirected it mid-air past Francouz.

Ilya Kovalchuk rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal late in the third period, padding his status as the highestscoring Russian in Olympic ice hockey. —