The Russian national hockey team had to end the Swedish Games, not really having a rest after Saturday's meeting with the hosts of the third stage of the Eurotour. Going out to the match with the Czechs was to be held on Sunday afternoon - less than a day after the defeat from the Swedish team.
Changes in the composition under such circumstances suggested themselves, and the head coach of the team Alexei Kudashov went to drastic measures. He removed from the application the three Vasily Podkolzin - Ivan Morozov - Kirill Marchenko, with whom he would return to the KHL regular championship after returning to SKA. There was no place for a game with the Czech Republic for both defender Danila Galenyuk and goalkeeper Alexander Samonov, who was replaced by Igor Bobkov.
In the first minutes, the wards of Kudashov had a great desire to avoid the third defeat in a row. The national team played in incomplete four triples - Artyom Shvets-Rogovoy did not go out on the ice for a second. However, this did not stop the Czechs from creating problems, especially when playing in the majority. In the 12th minute, Arthur Kayumov threw a shot from an acute angle.
At the same time, the discipline was also lame among the Russians, and the wards of Milos Rigi took advantage of this until the end of the first period. The removal of Andrei Mironov, also with a ten-minute ban on appearing on ice, led to Yakub Flek's goal - although the puck flew into the goal after a two-minute penalty, by then the Russians were still actually in the minority.
After the break, the Czech team tried to develop success, but Bobkov began to respond much better to shots, and then the initiative returned to the Russian team. Good points were noted by a good half of the attackers, only no one succeeded in distinguishing themselves - even four minutes of the majority did not help.
When Artyom Galimov left, it might seem that until the next period there would be no reason for joy. However, a real funny thing happened - Yakub Yerzhabek broke his stick when shooting from the blue line, and the puck was intercepted by Andrei Svetlakov and Maxim Mamin. Together, they forced the Czech goalkeeper to capitulate, and the judges, after a video replay, scored a goal.
In the third 20-minute period of the Russian national team, it was necessary to play as reliably as possible - even once at the Swedish Games the victory was not so close. But fatigue began to make itself felt, moreover, the team suffered losses - during the skirmish between Mironov and Radim Zogornaya, Golyshev went to the arm. Soon, captain Bogdan Kiselevich was also removed, and Bobkov missed a long throw from Jan Koshtyalek very inappropriately.
Pavel Poryadin almost became the savior of the national team. The young striker in the fall again pulled the Russian team forward three minutes before the end of regular time. Only his efforts were few. The Czechs played out the match with six field players, and again Koshtyalek was in a convenient position for the throw. The defender took aim two tenths of a second before the siren and managed to equalize. To some extent, this completion of the third period was even logical - the Czechs threw 14 goals on Bobkov's goal during that time.
In overtime, the Russians had a chance to finish the match with a victory - Tomas Gika almost immediately earned the deletion. To realize such a right moment failed. Soon Svetlakov rehearsed the performance of the shootout, escaping alone to someone else's goal, but also did not finish the attack.
In the series of real shootouts from Russians, no one excelled - Dominic Furh did not miss a single throw, and the Czech team won. The Russians had the best match at the Swedish Games, but ended the Eurotour stage without a single victory.
The result of this performance was summed up by Kiselevich. He did not make a discount on the fact that the current national team is very similar to the youth, and named the reasons that did not allow to score more than one point for the entire tournament.
“By the third match, we started to play better. Psychological pressure subsided, we showed good open hockey. We were led to defeat by unnecessary deletions. Loss of concentration is the problem of the young team. I think that at this stage of the Eurotour, everyone has gained experience and will ask a question. We are extremely unhappy with the result, despite our composition. We did not succeed in shooting today. Being a team captain is a responsible position. If you want to play in the national team, you need to work hard and meet the level, play all 60 minutes. We failed, but we ourselves created problems. We need to clean them, ”the Sport Express quotes the captain.