Team Russia faced off against Sweden in the first game of the Group B World Cup of hockey. There is going to be quite the battle between Sweden, Russia and team North America to make it to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Before the tournament began I would have thought Sweden was the Group B powerhouse, with Russia giving them all they could handle up front. That may still be the case, but with a regulation loss for Russia, it looks as if one more regulation loss and they will be on the outside looking in.

The Russia forwards came out of the gate looking to capitalize on a goal early. They peppered Markstom in the early going of the first period, but the net minder was fully prepared and had no problems keeping the puck out of the net, and for quite some time. Russia squandered their first power play in period one, where Orlov let go a blast from the point, and Malkin almost setup the red hot Panarin.

Orlov later in the period got a delay of game penalty giving Sweden their first power play, which was weak, considering Kulemin had the best scoring chance for Russia. The Russian penalty kill was strong, keeping the chances to a minimum for Sweden. Bobrovsky had a solid effort in the first period, turning away Filip Forsberg a couple of times and keeping the Russian’s hungry for the first goal.

There wasn’t nearly enough pressure and shots by the Russian squad in the first period to fully test Markstrom, which seemed to be their game plan from puck drop.

As period two got under way you could see both teams were hungry for the first goal. It felt as if both teams’ offensive players were not getting a magnitude of scoring chances. Kulemin was doing a good job causing havoc, and turnovers we’re giving the Russian team some quality scoring chances. Tarasenko almost had a tap in after Kulemin stole the puck off the Swedes deep in their own zone.

Shupachev got a hooking penalty and this seems to be where things started to turn for the worst. Russia had an excellent penalty kill on the first Swedish power play, but found themselves down 1-0 as Landeskog buried a rocket one-timer from Karlsson. Lakndeskog ripped the shot through a screen, it dinged off the post and went in, Bobrovsky really didn’t have much of a chance. Russia really needed to get the next goal before Sweden starts to play a shutdown type game.

Unfortunately for team Russia, it wasn’t long before they found themselves trailing 2-0 when Hagelin setup Hedman for team Sweden’s second goal of the period.

The third period was going to have to be Russia’s best if they wanted to even the score of the game. They came out the gates flying, really giving it all they had as they pressured team Sweden in their zone for a good chunk of the period. Markstrom was on his game, playing very solid for Sweden.

Quite possibly the best scoring chance Russia had been on the penalty kill when Ovechkin was serving a slashing penalty. Anisimov picked off a pass and Russia did a great job killing off the penalty, but that wasn’t enough, they needed to break the ice and get on the scoreboard.

There was just a minute or so to go in the game and the Russian team pulled Bobrovsky, giving them an extra attacker on the ice. Ovechkin let one rip and blasted home a slap shot with thirty seconds left giving the Russian team a huge confidence boost, they needed one more, and quickly.

The Russian team was hungry and they did manage to score a goal with seven seconds left! Ovechkin batted down the puck with his hand and tried to get his stick on it as it rolled into the net. The goal initially counted, but the ref waived it off immediately as he had a clear view of Ovechkin hitting the puck down and was quite certain he didn’t get his stick on the puck before it rolled in.

After review, the goal was disallowed and the Russian’s lost 2-1 versus Sweden.

Ovechkin was livid, yelling at the ref’s from the bench. As upset as he may have been, he didn’t touch the puck, the ref made the right call, and if he’s to be upset at anyone it should be his coach for playing him so little.

Russia needed that third period effort all game, something they better carry over into their next game.

Thanks for reading.

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