The defeat before the World Cup: Russia lost to the Czech Republic in the last match of Euro Hockey Tour

The Russian national ice hockey team finished the Czech stage of the Eurotour with a match with its hosts. Thanks to the fact that Sweden beat Finland 3-2 earlier on the same day, Valery Bragin's charges have a chance to set an impressive achievement - for the first time in 13 years, to win all individual mini-tournaments in one season. To do this, in a meeting with the Czech Republic, it was necessary to score three points.

The long-awaited help from the National Hockey League was supposed to help with this. Although several players have already joined the team, only forward Mikhail Grigorenko could go on the ice against the Czechs. The Columbus Blue Jackets center forward finished second with Anton Slepyshev and Anton Burdasov. The first one was reshuffled again, and it ended up with Dmitry Voronkov, Maxim Shalunov and Konstantin Okulov. Bragin did not leave without rotation all the other positions in the team, including the goalkeeper - Ivan Fedotov from CSKA was able to make his debut in the first team.

The Czechs have had a boost from the NHL for a long time.

Suffice it to recall that in the previous match with Sweden, the home team scored a brace by the Detroit Red Wings striker Philip Zadina.

And before the game with Russia, Philip Heathil from the New York Rangers and Jan Kovar joined the team - although he represents the Swiss Zug, he could compete with any overseas hockey player in importance for the team.

The start of the match turned out to be poor for dangerous moments, but the persistence of Zadina and Kovarzh was very noticeable - Fedotov had to extinguish their throws more than once.

The Russian team had the only chance to excel was with Burdasov.

He tried to repeat his solo goal to the Swedes, but sent the puck over the crossbar of Shimon Grubec's goal.

For this missed moment, the Czechs immediately punished the guests.

In the middle of the first period, the same Zadina took the puck on the blue line and began to shift to the side, not only taking the defenders behind him, but also forcing Fedotov to push off from the left bar.

It was in this vacated space that the Czech striker took aim and opened an account.

The missed goal forced the Russians to become more active, but they practically did not throw the remaining ten minutes at someone else's goal - for the entire period, Bragin's wards harassed Grubec only five times.

The 20-minute ended shortly after the fight, in which Pavel Karnaukhov and Tomasz Zogorna fought.

Together with two more partners, they had to go to the box for the penalty box.

Immediately after the break, the position of the Russian team worsened. An error in the middle zone gave Jiri Sekach a chance to escape to the other's goal. His race had to be interrupted by breaking the rules, and the judges ordered a bullet. The winner of the Gagarin Cup with Avangard did not even drive up close to Fedotov and just threw him over his trap. The reaction of Russian hockey players to the second goal was the same as to the first - they began to play more intensely and put pressure on the opponent even more, but this still did not give a result.

The Czechs, on the other hand, felt quite comfortable in such an environment and not only did not panic, but did not break the rules either. And as soon as the Russians were distracted for a second in the 32nd minute, the opponents carried out a successful counterattack. Jiri Smeikal broke through on the right flank and threw in the fall. Fedotov deflected the puck, but Yakub Flek came to her. Playing along with his foot, he scored for the third goal in the match. The goalkeeper was replaced by Alexander Samonov, but there could be no substitutions for the defenders of the Russian national team, and they were the ones that were required.

The events before and after the second hiatus were very similar to those of the previous period.

At the end of the second 20-minute, there was a mutual removal again due to the fight, which was now staged by Philip Gronek and Vladislav Kamenev, and at the beginning of the third 20-minute, the puck flew into the gates of the Russian national team again.

This time Samonov deflected Libor Shulak's throw from the left flank, but did not prevent to finish off Zogorna.

Already in the fourth match in a row, Bragin's wards conceded four goals, only this time there was not a single return from their side.

In the second period, the Russians at least managed to shoot at Grubec's goal - he had to make 19 saves to keep a zero on the scoreboard.

But in the final third of the match, problems began to arise with the delivery of the puck to a foreign zone.

Even the first majority, which had to wait more than 51 minutes, did not help.

Shortly before the final siren, Shalunov still managed to throw the puck, but a second before that, Yegor Yakovlev knocked down Grubec. The judges not only canceled the goal, but also removed the defender, and at the same time punished the Russian national team with another two-minute penalty for delaying time. Bragin's wards for the first time at this Eurotour could not distinguish themselves with accurate throws and finished preparations for the World Cup with a defeat from the Czech national team with a score of 0: 4. The Russians will meet with her on May 21 in the first match of the World Championship in Latvia.