The defeat of the Swedes in the main time did not allow the Russian national hockey team to last to claim victory in the third stage of the Euro Tour: the first line of the tournament table behind us was ahead of time by the Czechs, who understood the Tre Kruhnur and the Finnish team. But the final match of domestic hockey players on the Swedish land with the team of Milos Riha did not become less interesting - even considering that the famous specialist who had worked for a long time in the KHL released several star players to clubs by European standards. The Czech Republic went to a duel with the Russians, in particular, without Jan Kovář and Jiří Sekác, through whose efforts she, by and large, celebrated the victory at the Swedish Games.
These factors had no effect on the motivation of the Russian team. Firstly, many hockey players, who only occasionally fall into the national team cage, had something to prove - both to themselves and the coaching staff, headed by Ilya Vorobyov, who will have to think about determining the final bid for the world championship. Secondly, it was curious to observe how the experimental composition would react to the defeat from Sweden.
There is a composition for the match with the Czechs - the final on the Swedish hockey games. We study, we charge for a beautiful game 🔥
You can watch at @MatchTV and https://t.co/hVuJjUSFTbpic.twitter.com/DHDpP8tcRM
Finally, the team of Russia could strengthen the leadership in the overall Euro Tour, which she confidently led after a bright triumph in the First Channel Channel Cup, with the positive result of the fight with the Czechs. The final victory in the half-friendly tournament may not be a priority for the national team, but there are not so many trophies in hockey for national teams to voluntarily neglect one of them.
Kuzmenko third double in Eurotour
At first, principled rivals did not please the audience with high speeds, dynamics and an abundance of dangerous moments. The starting dvadtsatiminutka was held according to the usual scenario for this confrontation - the Czechs gave the initiative (although they allowed to make only five shots on their own goal for the entire debut segment), while they themselves tried to catch Vorobyov by mistake in order to turn it into an assist.
They managed to do it in the middle of the second period: the Russian defenders did not prevent the attacking Tomash Zogorne to go one on one with Ilya Konovalov, who returned to the final line of the national team, and the 20-year-old goalkeeper played in this episode not in the best way, allowing the puck to cross the goal line.
An open account became an excellent catalyst for domestic hockey players - it seemed that they were just waiting for the right moment to inflate the pace and more often set in front of the Czech national defense insoluble tasks. For a partner led three Andrei Svetlakova, who organized two effective attacks before the final break. Both times, Andrei Kuzmenko, who plays at the club level for SKA, was on their edge both times. And if in the first case, the 23-year-old striker distinguished himself with an aiming throw, to which the Czech goalkeeper Shimon Grubets did not have time to react, then in the second he was thoroughly helped by the rebound from the defender, who transported the projectile to his own goal after shooting at the patch.
Cherry on today's cake 🍒
You can read more about the game here: https://t.co/hjgFdFyTVTpic.twitter.com/3pLVaO9IBM
So Kuzmenko, who participated in each of the three stages of the Euro Tour in the season 2018/19, brought the score to six in the tournament. And if the young striker and hit the gate of the opponents of the Russian team, then only two times per game. Andrei scored a double at the Swedish gate in the Karjala Cup, after which he twice upset the Czechs, first at the Channel One Cup, and now at the Swedish games. In the remaining five matches for the national team in the current hockey year, he marked only one assists.
Rescue Konovalov and Kadeikin debut puck
Yielding with one puck difference, the Czechs in the third period were able to restore parity on the scoreboard. With his activity in the Russian zone, Patrick Zdragal earned a free-throw shot at Konovalov's goal, forcing Yevgeny Kulik to break the rules in order to thwart his opponent’s new way out on a date with a young goalkeeper. And it was here that Ilya showed himself perfectly, not allowing Marek Kvapil to distinguish himself to the much more experienced one and reflecting the throw of the Czech striker.
All questions about the outcome of the meeting took off Alexander Kadeykin, one of the main, along with Ilya Mikheev, applicants for participation in the world championship in this convocation of the Russian team. In a matter of seconds, the attacker managed to win a throw-in in a foreign zone, and came to the nyatak just in time to smuggle the puck into the net after throwing the defender Rushan Rafikov from the blue line. Thus, the representative of "Salavat Yulaev" first distinguished himself in the national team and once again proved that Vorobyov could be useful not only as a hockey player of the retaining links.
All four goals of the match Russia - Czech Republic at the Swedish hockey games. And three of them are ours 😁 pic.twitter.com/MdxLmACEWL
- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) February 10, 2019In some aspects, the victory with a score of 3: 1 and left contradictory impressions. So, the Russian team has never managed to realize the majority in the match, although the Czechs provided four attempts to play in a numerical advantage. However, after the final siren, Vorobiev was pleased with the game of his players in the second half of the meeting. And the three points scored virtually guaranteed to domestic hockey players the final success in the Euro Tour - to finish first in the standings of the tournament based on the results of the whole season, it would be enough for them not to lose once in main time in the Czech Republic, where the fourth and final stage of the competition will take place in May.