EHT: Fasth and furious

In the first game of the second day at Channel One Cup in Moscow the Swedish team faced Russia, last time Tre Kronor beat Russia in Moscow was in 2006 in a shootout series. Last year in four games of EHT the teams won two times and Pär Mårts with his Sweden teams has good statistics against Russian including three of three wins at WJC. In the first game this season at Karjala Cup Russia won 4-1 with two goals from Alexander Radulov, one from Alexander Perezhogin and Sergei Shirokov, Calle Järnkrok, who doesn't play in Moscow, scored for his team.


Radulov celebrating a goal against Sweden in Karjala Cup

A great puck controlling helped Sweden to take a game lead in the middle of the first. Niklas Persson can't convert pass from Andreas Falk, but then Staffan Kronwall strike low and opened the scoring at 10:17 with Vadim Shipachyov in the penalty box. After conceding a goal Russia began to play more in a body with several good hits in a neutral zone. A little mess happened, when Jonas Frögren met Sergei Shirokov near the Sweden bench, officials broke any attempts from Ilya Nikulin to get to Frögren.

"It was a difficult for us to play against this Sweden team. During the game we knew how to play against their tactics, but it wasn't enough to win" Viktor Tikhonov said.

In the end of the period open-wide Viktor Tikhonov misfired on a sure goal. Igor Makarov was robbed in front of the net by Mattias Ekholm and a few seconds later Mikael Johansson's good chance in a counter-attack was stopped by the Russian goalie.

"We try to play in another way, more skating, faster, controlling a puck more. It was a key moment today," Sweden head coach Pär Mårts said after the game.

Konstantin Korneyev hit the post in the second period during power-play. Zakrisson can't score from a great pass of a partner, where only the empty-net was behind him. Robert Rosén won a faceoff set a pass up to Staffan Kronwall, who scored again with a high slap shot at 25:15. Jonas Frögren, who played tight with every Russian near the net, got a 2-minutes for roughing, adding a 10-minutes penalty for illegal checking into the head after a very aggressive hit on Igor Makarov.


Carl Söderberg and Ilya Zubov. Photo Elena Rusko

Minutes later Carl Söderberg gifted Russia a chance to play 5-on-3 with high-sticking play near the home team bench. Ilya Zubov and Sergei Shirokov hadn't decided who should finish the moment after a great combination, but less than a minute later with the fourth Swede on the ice, in the same situation Sergei Shirokov made it 1-2 after a great pass from Alexander Radulov.

Nikolai Zherdev tied the game at 43:59 with a beautiful shot from the sharp angle and pass-to-pass with Alexander Radulov.

"We got a lot of penalties and Russia team was good at PP," Dick Axelsson explained, why Russia tied the game.

Sweden went on playing as they played this game, Carl Söderberg came from the net and fed a pass to Dick Axelsson through the goalie zone; Axelsson added a puck to the net and gave his team a lead. Staffan Kronwall found the space between Igor Makarov's legs with a stun shot and made a hat-trick.


Kronwall in the Severstal jersey

"I don't remember when I scored three goals, not only for the national team but at all" Staffan Kronwall said about his hat-trick.
Later in the third the Russian team tried to erase a 2-goal deficit, but couldn't do anything.

 "I understand that we wanted to win, when our guys began to block so many shots, how they never do that," Mårts said.

"The Sweden team deserved to win today; they played better, more aggressive. They always blocked our players with a puck. We didn't expect that the game would go in this way. It's a good lesson for us," Russian head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said.

Sweden has a real chance to win Channel One Cup first time since 1998, when it was called Baltika Cup. All they need is not to lose to Finland in regulations, if also Finland beat Czech at today's second game.

"We heard about that, it will be a hard game tomorrow, we'll do everything to win" Dick Axelsson said.

 

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