“The victory did not bring full satisfaction”: what they said after the success of the Russian national hockey team in the match with Sweden

Confident advantage and validation ending

After losing to the Finns in a debut match under the leadership of Alexei Kudashov, the Russian national team was eager to revenge before the fans and finally win. At the same time, the domestic team had to play with the Swedes, who in the first meeting of the Euro Hockey Tour also suffered a defeat.

As a result, Kudashov’s wards got such a necessary victory, but made their many fans seriously nervous. Although it all started for the team just fine. Already in the 11th minute, Anton Slepyshev opened the scoring with a powerful wrist throw, and soon Damir Zhafyarov doubled the advantage of the Russian team.

In the second period, domestic hockey players began to retire too often, and the Swedes even managed to earn a bullet, which was beautifully implemented by Karl Klingberg. But the Kudashov team answered this naked in the performance of Kirill Semenov.

It seemed that the outcome of the meeting was predetermined in advance, but, apparently, the Russians themselves believed it, it is difficult to explain the team’s failure in the final period. In the middle of the 20-minute Michael Wickstrand played one goal, but Nikita Soshnikov immediately made a great accurate shot. Nevertheless, the Swedes did not give up and for the time remaining before the siren managed to distinguish themselves twice and transferred the meeting to overtime.

As a result, the outcome of the confrontation was decided in a series of shootouts, and to identify the winner, the teams had to execute 16 attempts at once. Fortunately, the decisive turn was still the same Soshnikov. So the Russian team won the first victory under the leadership of Kudashov.

“Hockey players must act more confidently and solidly”

However, the coach himself after the match admitted that the victory “did not bring him satisfaction”, since the wards themselves created big problems in the third period.

“This is our second game, and hockey players should act more confidently and solidly for all 60 minutes. You must not allow an opponent to seize the initiative due to their own wrong actions. Unnecessary deletions should not break our game. At first there was complete control, but the removal at the beginning of the second period completely turned the game upside down. I told the guys that they are able to control the course of the match for all 60 minutes and not allow the opponent to take the initiative, ”Kudashova quotes the“ Championship ”.

The specialist also tried to explain what caused the two goals missed in the end of the third period.

“He said many times - this is an international level. Here, any mistake or defect leads at least to a transition of the initiative, and at the very least to a missed goal. The process of players realizing this is underway. They must believe in themselves, in the fact that we have a cool team that can defeat any opponent. Someone is already showing himself, someone will do it later, and this is normal, ”the coach added.

Finally, Kudashov talked about the situation with goalkeepers in the team. On Saturday, the entire match at the last frontier was held by the goalkeeper of the Vanguard Igor Bobkov.

“The guys are also gaining experience. We have not yet decided who will play in the match with the Czechs. The shooters were entrusted with punching the players who do it in the clubs, in approximately the same order as today, ”said Kudashov.

“As a child, he dreamed of going out onto the ice in the form of a national team. The dream has come true "

In turn, the hockey team of Russia remained in solidarity with the coach and in communication with reporters noted that they should not have missed such an advantage. In particular, striker Semyonov complained about a large number of deletions.

“Why did you get such an ending? We missed the puck, that's how it turned out. Could not stand, poor concentration. They played poorly in defense. The coaches explained how to act against the Swedes, that this is a good, fighting team. But we had to play better. Climb insistently to the gate, skip less. Removing as little as possible, because deleting breaks the game, ”the hockey player said.

But Semyonov himself clearly can bring the game with the Swedes into his asset, because he managed to score a debut puck as part of the Russian team.

“Of course, as a child, I always wanted to go out on the ice for the country, put on a national team jersey, and play under our flag. The dream has come true. Yes, I am here. It remains only to play and prove their place in the composition, so that they continue to be called on. New dream There are dreams, but they are with me. Most of them came true, there are not many left, ”added Semenov.

And the author of the victorious bullet Soshnikov still suggested concentrating on pleasant things.

“We won, it’s positive, but, of course, you can’t let your opponent go in such matches. Unplayability has affected. We play with new partners, a little did not figure it out. There are no excuses, but you can only write off this, ”the forward said.

He also spoke about the team’s mood for the final match of the Karjala Cup with the Czechs.

“We still have emotions. It is for the Czechs that we protect them, because this is always a principled rival, it will be a good game. As for my puck, I got a good pass in the majority, it remained to fulfill. And with bullet there was a small blank. He assumed that the goalkeeper of the opponent hardly knows about her, and tried. Will I try to throw so for the “Salavat”? I’ve tried it many times, ”summed up Soshnikov.