RUSSIA LAYS DOWN CHAMPION’S CROWN

The Russian ice hockey national team surrendered to Czech Republic yesterday and failed to defend the world champion’s title.

IIHF World Championship.

Final

Russia vs. Czech Republiс – 1:2 (0:1, 0:1, 1:0)

Scorers: Klepis – 0:1. Rolinek – 2:0. Datsyuk – 2:1 (PP).

Probably the most motivated teams of the tournament met in the final of the world championship for Czechs desired not less than our players to whitewash after the Vancouver-2010.

Moreover it was the last chance for the superstar of the Czech team Jaromir Jagr to win a serious international title at the decline of his career.

The forward of Avangard expressed his wish to meet Russia in the final on Thursday when his team outplayed Finland in the quarterfinal shootout.

"I believe that we will compete with Russian for the golden medals here in Cologne," said Jagr. "Just because such a clash would have been a real hit of the tournament that has not happen for a long time already at the highest level."

The Czech team improved throughout the tournament from match to match. Moreover they did not experience any psychological tension for all specialists would bet Russia a winner.

For the Russian team the yesterday’s match was additionally principal, for it could have a decisive impact on the future of the coaching staff of our team. A lot has been said about the work of Bykov and Zakharkin and their contract expiring in August this year.

Russia started the final with an optimum squad. Semin returned after some rest to the team and Sushinsky on the contrary did not impress in the semifinal.

The head specialist of the national team on goalies Vladislav Tretyak explained why they gave the first choice goaltender of the team Varlamov a chance to rest during the semifinal clash: "Semyon complained on Friday that it is very difficult to play to such important matches in a row. And that is why Koshechkin appeared on Saturday and he would not let the team down."

Hardly had the game started as Russia conceded. Being very angry the Bykov’s team rushed forward and the Czech defence let more than the German the day before but the goalie of our opponents Tomas Vokoun displayed wonderfully.

Datsyuk scored a goal at the very end of the first period but it was disallowed by the referees after watching the record.

Our attack looked hopeless and moreover Ovechkin knocked down Fyodorov and left our team without a center forward.

But the last chances to equalize were wiped out by the referees who awarded Emelin a match penalty and left the Russian team shorthanded for five minutes. But the body check against Jagr was hardly enough for a simple two-minute penalty.

After five minutes of penalty killing Russians had no energy for the final onslaught. We even failed to net the puck at 6 against 3 combination. And the goal of Datsyuk with 36 seconds to play did not change anything.

Russia failed to win a single trophy in the Olympic year and defend the title of the world’s champions.