Malkin scored three and Russia got their revenge!

Game started with very carefull play, especially from Russian side. They gave Finland the puck control at early stages. Though there weren't too many scoring chances but Finland opened the scoring when Kontiola and Joensuu were doing hard work digging and grinding in Russian zone. They got the puck to Janne Niskala whose shot from the blueline got deflected from Russian stick and surprised Simeon Varlamov. After that Russia got more active and came with into the game. Their leading duo was Malkin-Popov who also created Russian's first goal. After hard pressure on Finland zone Malkin's shot found its way into the Finland's goal through several players in front of the Finnish goal. Shortly after Malkin's goal Ossi Väänänen of Finland were penalized with very easy holding penalty in a situation were Russian forward were merely leaning on Väänänen's stick. Finland almost survived the power play but only almost. Five seconds before coming full strength Malkin scored again. Finnish goalie Petri Vehanen couldn't stop Malkin's shot from short range.

Second period was still controlled by Finland but every time Russia got puck they came up very dangerously. After six minutes Finland was penalized in a very questionable situation. Malkin was breaking through from the right side and somehow slipped down and hit the board. Referee saw that Finnish defender Joonas Järvinen tripped Malkin and gave a penalty. Malkin was also hurt and left the game because of hurt hand. Luckily he wasn't hurt badly and could return to the game after some 10 minutes. Finland survived the penalty but then in 9.47 Alex Ovechkin was allowed to come up from Finland's corner and take totally free his famous wrist shot and that didn't leave much chances for Vehanen in Finland's goal. Russia scored one more goal when Malkin shot from his favourite spot from the circle. Goal was third one from Malkin and a power play goal after Finnish captain Koivu had taken a bad slashing penalty after Alexei Tarashenko tackled him. Pretty big price for an unnecessary penalty.

In the third period home fans were still hoping maybe for Finland's come back but even the smallest hopes were erased by Denis Kokarev when he scored a lucky goal via Ossi Väänänen's skate already after one minute play. The rest of the game was more or less playing down the time and both teams managed to score once, Sergei Shirokov for Russia and Mikael Granlund for Finland.

Finland's coach Jukka Jalonen was proud of his team but also ofcourse disappointed: "Our guys fighting spirit was good. We lost to a very good team which was also clearly better than we. What bothers me most is that we made some mistakes that cost us the game. Mistakes wasn't big ones but if you want to beat a team like Russia you can't make those. Furthermore we couldn't score from our chances".

"Russia played as a team much better than they have done during previous tournaments. When we add on top of that exceptional personal skills of their players and also very good disciplin here we see results" Jalonen continued.

Zinetula Biljaletdinov was happy about their game: "We prepared very good for the game and we studied how Finland plays. I am happy that our players really realized how they should play against Finland."

After all Finland can be proud of their game. They fought what they could and they played good but this time it was not enough against powerfull Russia. In the final Czech or Slovakia will have a big task to do if they want to beat Russians. If only Russia can stay patient and play as a team.

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