Karjala Cup begins

Salminen, Finland get Russians

With less than seven minutes to go in the game tied at 3, the KHL bond in the Finnish national team worked as Tuuka Mantyla set the puck up for Sakari Salminen, who beat Konstantin Barulin to get the win for the home side.

It took just 3:44 for Juuso Hietanen to open the scoring on a set up from Petri Kontiola, and immediately Alexander Yeryomenko was subtitued by Barulin in the Russian net. Though it was a strange sequence of events for the Russian team, it brought about a change in play. They then started to put more pressure on the Finns and evened the score through Yuri Alexandrov at 9:03.

"Overall we played good. We made a lot of mistakes in the defense, and will work on it and we should try to convert more on offence," said Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, the Russian head coach after the game.

The Russians kept up the good play but the game was all about momentum changes.

Mikhail Varnakov put the Russians in front in the first minute of the second period from Maxim Chudinov and Yevgeny Medvedev, striking the puck into the upper right corner behind Jussi Rynnäs.

Just two minutes later, Oskar Osala picked up a rebound from a shot by Teemu Hartikainen and sent the puck into the empty net before Barulin could recover. Four minutes later Leonid Komarov, Dynamo Moscow's forward and the man with the most complicated citizenship, converted a good offensive effort from Jarkko Immonen and Antti Pihlstrom to put Finland back into the lead.

Another change? No problem if you ask Viktor Tikhonov, who leveled the score five minutes into the third period from a very tough spot -- the angle to the goal was close to zero, but he somehow managed to slip the puck across the line.

Game changers:

-Salminen (F) - 1 goal, game-winner

EuroHockey MVP: Sakari Salminen (1GWG, 1P) - Although everyone on the Finnish team recorded a sole point in today's game, Sakari Salminen scored the winning goal in the 54th minute to continue Finland's dominance in the EuroHockeyTour with 12 points.

Swedes smash Czechs

Linus Klassen and Simon Hjalmarsson scored twice and Par Arlbrandt added a goal and two assists as Sweden crushed the Czech Republic 6-0 on home ice.

The Swedes started demoralizing the Czechs from early on. Playing on home ice in Gävle would signal an advantage and the Swedes took complete dominance over their counterpart before departing for Helsinki.

Both these teams look to get some preparatory form before the Sochi Olympics in February, but the Swedes seem to have more of the game. The score was opened just shy of the four-minute mark by Klasen, followed by two quick ones by Hjalmarsson (16:03) and Arlbrandt (16:32) to give the Swedes a commanding 3-0 lead after one period.

The Czechs started to put on some pressure on Swedish goaltender Henrik Karlsson in the second period, but he withstood it, making a spectacular goal-line save when Jan Kovar tried to deke him out.

Then Klasen was again the man of the action, making an incredible individual effort on a Swedish power play when he took the puck from his blueline all the way to the Czech zone and fired a perfect wrister just inside the far post. At that moment, Jakub Kovar replaced Jakub Stepanek in the Czech goal, hoping to bring the momentum change.

Hjalmarsson made it 5-0 on a lucky bounce. Arlbrandt sent the pass in from the corner and the puck deflects off Hjalmarsson's skate. After the review the referees acknowledge the goal for his second of the night.

Just 1:30 before the end, Martin Thornberg finally scored after having more shots than anyone else in the game, winning the race in the Czech zone and then beating the goalie with a nice wrister just inside the near post.

Game changers:

-Karlsson (G) - 30 stops, 100% SVS

-Klassen (F) - 2 goals

-Hjalmarsson (F) - 2 goals

EuroHockey MVP: Par Arlbrandt (1G, 2A, 3P) - It was a tough choice as both Klassen and Hjalmarsson scored twice, though Arlbrandt managed to get most points in today's game as he scored a goal and added two assists to Hjalmarsson.

Final scores:

Russia 3 - Finland 4

Sweden 6 - Czech Republic 0.

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