Evgeni Malkin: “We lost to Canada because we didn’t play like a team” (Photo © Shaun Best, Reuters)

Russian star Evgeni Malkin gave an interview to Vasili Osipov of Sport-Express after the game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers at the Madison Square Garden.
In this interview Evgeni talked about the reasons of Team Russia‘s defeat to Canada at the latest Olympic Tournament, examined the differences between the management of the two national teams and tried to suggest some changes to get the revenge in Sochi.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of the interview.

“Believe me, I still can’t understand what’s happened at the Olympics, it was a big disappointment. In Vancouver there was an extraordinary atmosphere and the organization was top notch. But everything fell in the background because of Russia’s results. Everyone was expecting good results from hockey, but then…

I think that we can’t afford losing time in our preparation for 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, we have to start right now. Look at Canada: they suffered from two painful loss in the two latest WCs and in Vancouver they went in full forces, they really wanted to show to the whole world that they can play hockey. And it showed.

Now we really have to learn from them, in every area. We should analyze the work of Canadian coaches, scouts and even managers. It’s not a shame to learn from the best. They managed to take the best from us, now it’s time for us to do the same. Otherwise getting good results in the best-on-best competitions, like the Olympics, will be very hard.

In four years in Sochi we will have to prove that such a bad defeat against Canada was only a fluke. Maybe we burnt out a bit, we were playing against an opponent who could count on a lot of support from the crowd.”

– Olympic emotions have now rushed out. Is it now possible with a clear head what were the reasons of the defeat against team Canada?

Malkin: “Nothing have rushed out, it’s still hard for me to talk about that. Before that game the coaches told us to play cautiously in the first 10-15 minutes. But for some reasons we all run forward to attack, even if it was important to pay much attention to the defensive play. Now I think: ‘Maybe we should have call a time-out after the first couple of goals? Maybe we should have change the goalie?’ But it’s easy to talk now…

Mostly we lost be cause of details, little things. As we were losing, we couldn’t keep our tempers, everyone was trying to beat out with the puck the opponent whole line. We didn’t show combinational play. Probably the coaches should have told us to concentrate more and relax. But, once again, it’s easy to talk now… But overall this game was a great experience for us and we have to come to the right conclusions.”

– In Russia many are talking about the “Vancouver Lesson”. About the fact that, for example, two coaches aren’t enough as they couldn’t physically cover all the aspect of such a hard tournament like the Olympics.

Malkin: “They speak the truth. I think that two coaches aren’t enough. And I don’t understand why we can’t raise this number. It’s the first time I work with such a truncated staff. And there wasn’t enough information. Bykov and Zakharkin won two WCs back to back and thus they decided not to change anything. But these Olympics proved that in that tournament the level is a bit higher than at the WC.

We surely have to widen the staff board. And I’m talking not about coaches on the bench but rather people watching the game from the stands. Almost all of the teams at the Olympics did this. The Canadians had a lot of people who watched the games from there, making notes and then showing them to the team.

– It’s a known fact that in North American teams they pay much attention to the tactics and to the video analysis of the opponents. How did team Russia work with this at the Olympics and before the unfortunate game against team Canada?

Malkin: “You know, these are two whole different schools. Of course we saw videos, analysed the opponents’ play. But the way they do it in North America and in Russia is really different. We are behind Canada in this. There wasn’t enough information, let’s admit it, especially for defencemen and forwards. But anyway I think we are doing steps forward. After all Bykov is a young coach, he will want to take his vendetta at the next WC and in Sochi. I think that he will come to the right conclusions.

But I’d like to add a thing. My personal opinion is that combine the work as club’s and national team’s head coach is a very hard job. It’s tough to follow both the KHL and what happens overseas at the same time, and there is a big difference between working with a national team and a club. But you it would be better to ask this question to the Russian Hockey Federation. Its people have to think about the changes needed to improve the situation.”

– And what kind of experience did you get from the Olympics?

Malkin: “Only that you really have to play with drive, but you also have to play with calm and stay relaxed. And also that you have to play like a team. We started losing against Canada when we stopped playing like a team.

It’s a pity that after the defeat they threw so much mud at us. I’ve even read that the national team’s players had a walk before the match against Canada. This is a nonsense! My team mates only thought about how to win and fight till the end. Maybe there were some injuries, some players were tired or we had some bad luck, but no one broke the work regime.”

– In Russia they also talk about the difference from NHL to KHL players. Perry and Getzlaf’s line easily won over Zinoviev’s one.

Malkin: “You can’t blame singular players. We all made childish mistakes and after them they scored. For example I lost a puck on our blue line and they scored us one of the goals. You can’t say that the KHL lines were worse than others. The game against Canada was hard for everyone. And both Zinoviev’s and Fedorov‘s line played well against Slovakia and Czech Republic.”

– How hard it was to switch to NHL regular season after the defeat against team Canada?

Malkin: “On the one hand it wasn’t easy, but it’s nice when you get back to your team. I think I’m already set here again. Now I try to think about how to win the Stanley Cup. Otherwise it would be really hard. You can’t forget such a defeat in one day, not even in one week.”

– Were you tired after the Olympic tournament?

Malkin: “Psychologically tired. Where were the medals, the national pride after this bad defeat? After such things there are always provocative questions and it’s hard to reply them. You know, I review in my mind a lot of times many moments of that game. I tried to analyse where we made mistakes. I’m still young so I recover quickly after the games, but when you are psychologically hurt it’s much harder.”

– Especially when you are sit next to Sidney Crosby, who scored the Game Winner in the Olympic Finals.

Malkin: “I respect Crosby a lot as an athlete. He got back to the practice without ostentation. He didn’t show any peacockery like ‘I’m an Olympic Champion, I scored the Game-Winning goal’. I thank Sidney for his support, he didn’t rub salt into the wound.”

– During the Finals, who were you cheering for?

Malkin: “I left the Olympics a couple of days after the quarterfinals, I spent some time with my parents and friends. I followed a bit what was happening, but I couldn’t watch the final match, I was on the plane. I looked at the result and Sid’s goal only when we landed in Denver.”

– Were you glad for your team mates?

Malkin: “Honestly speaking I felt a lot of envy. But the better team won, and we can only congratulate Team Canada.

2010 Olympics: Team Russia aftermath (Photo © sovsport.ru)

The 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament has probably been the biggest disappointing ever for Team Russia. The early quarterfinal elimination against Team Canada was the worst result ever.

As soon as the tournament was over for Russia, we published the Top 5 reasons for this fail, now RussianHockeyFans.com judged all the players on the roster.

Goalkeepers

Ilya Bryzgalov: B+
He played a good game against Slovakia, but he got a L and thus he got benched in the following matches. He should have get more chances.

Evgeny Nabokov: D
In the first match against Latvia he didn’t look too good, but it was an easy game. Against the Czechs he did his job, but in the quarterfinals he had just a terrible night. He should have been benched earlier. He was really disappointing.

Defencemen

Andrei Markov: C+
Unfortunately he wasn’t in his best shape. He tried hard being useful for his team but he didn’t play his best and also he didn’t get enough ice time.

Anton Volchenkov: C+
One of the best blueliners for this team. He always tried hard, blocked a lot of shots, played physically. But against Canada he didn’t particularly stand out .

Dmitriy Kalinin: C
He didn’t look out of place. He wasn’t team Russia’s best blueliner but he did his job.

Sergei Gonchar: C
Just like Markov he didn’t get too much ice time. And he appeared in the score sheet only once.

Fedor Tyutin: C-
He didn’t do anything special. As a NHL player he should have bring more to the team.

Ilya Nikulin: C-
He didn’t make disasters, but it showed that he’s not used to face elite level competition and he faced some hard time in the own zone.

Denis Grebeshkov: C-
He didn’t impress, even in the round robin games. He still has a lot of room for improvements, but he has to deliver better performances.

Konstantin Korneev: C-
He didn’t look bad, but he was the only pointless player on the roster. The CSKA captain didn’t look out of place in the round robin, even if he has been played most of times in an unusual and unexpected role. His ice time has been limited in the game against Canada.

Forwards

Sergei Fedorov: C+
The proof that you can be a good player even at 40. Even if he looked a bit slow, he played well throughout the whole tournament and despite the infamous quarterfinal game he was one of the best players in Team Russia jersey.

Evgeni Malkin: C
Malkin, just like most of the forwards, played fairly well in the round robin matches, but he didn’t show up when it mattered more.

Pavel Datsyuk: C
Maybe he didn’t gel with his linemates, but Datsyuk didn’t really impress during these Olympic games, he didn’t look the key player he is for the Red Wings, just think about the shoot out attempt against Slovakia.

Alexei Morozov: C
Team Russia’s captain tried hard, but didn’t impress too much. He scored an important goal against the Slovaks, but that’s pretty much all.

Maxim Afinogenov: C
He went unpleasantly unnoticed in the first couple of games, then he improved a bit and scored a nice, yet unuseful, goal against the Canadians.

Danis Zaripov: C-
The ZZM line has always had good chemistry, too bad in Vancouver they played on small ice…He did fairly well in the first couple of games, then he slept away.

Viktor Kozlov: C-
His call was questionable, and he didn’t do too much to make people change idea. That being said, he could have get a chance in the shootouts against Slovakia.

Alexander Radulov: C-
Radulov didn’t play bad, but not great either. He almost spoiled the party against the Slovaks when he missed a chance, got a penalty and then injured Zinoviev, but he probably deserved more ice time.

Sergei Zinoviev: C-
Kudos for playing in the quarterfinals on one leg, but he should have sat on the bench, especially after that terrible turnover in the neutral zone that led Canadians to a goal.

Alexander Ovechkin: D
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the tournament as he was the most awaited player. He was a no factor against Canada and overall lost the phenom fight against Crosby.

Ilya Kovalchuk: D
What a difference between the Kovalchuk we admired at the last two WC in Quebec and Switzerland. He looked more the player on ice at the Turin Olympics. One goal is definitely not enough for a player of his caliber.

Alexander Semin: D
Just like other Russian superstar forwards, he didn’t show up.

Top 5 reasons why Russia failed at the Olympics (Photo © Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

With the early quarterfinals exit, Team Russia set a new negative record as this was the worse Olympic outcome in their history. Since the first participation, 1956 Olympics in Cortina, Italy, Russia never had such a poor result.

Team Russia’s roster was, on paper, the tournament’s finest, but they couldn’t live up to the expectations, even in the round robin, which Bykov’s team ended with two wins and one loss, which determined the pairing with Canada.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you top five reasons why Russia failed at 2010 Olympics.

Reason 5: Underestimation of the opponents

If someone remembers well, we used this reason also for the WJC failure article. While this was not the case in the quarterfinals match against Canada, this sure played a role in the other Russian defeat, against Slovakia. In that game Bykov’s team played without passion, as Bykov himself stated after the game, probably thinking that it would have been enough a 5-minute push to run away with the win. Well, it wasn’t enough. I’m putting some stress on this because if team Russia would have won they would have got a better seed, staying off team Canada so early.

Reason 4: Lack of spirit among leaders

Top players, especially in the game against Canada, didn’t really show up and took the team on their shoulders. Alexander Ovechkin has been invisible in the quarterfinal match, not to talk about Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Kovalchuk. About Kovalchuk, unfortunately he didn’t manage to repeat the great effort he had in the two latest World Championships.

Let’s browse the roster in depth. Alexander Semin, only two assists, Alexander Radulov, only one goal and one assist, Pavel Datsyuk, one goal and two assists. These are not the performances a contender would need from its top players, especially considering that Ovechkin, Malkin, Semin, Kovalchuk and others are without any doubt among the best players of the world.

Reason 3: Chronic lack of goaltending

And here we go again. Even if putting all the blame over Nabokov wouldn’t be fair, once again team Russia lacked quality goaltending. Considering the good performances by both Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov in the latest international competitions, it was reasonable to expect kind of the same in Vancouver. But unfortunately Nabokov didn’t deliver against Canada, letting in a couple of soft goals in the first period. And when Bykov benched him, after the sixth goal, it was too late.

As said, it was unexpected. Nabokov finished the Olympics with a terrible .853 of saves percentage and a GAA of 4.16. For comparison’s sake, at the 2006 Turin Olympics he had, respectively, .940 and 1.34. At the Quebec World Championship, .929 and 1.78. It’s safe to hope that for Sochi 2014 Semyon Varlamov will mature enough to take the starting or the backup role.

Reason 2: Bad coaching

Yet another common point in Russian defeats at any level. There is plenty to talk about the bad coach decision in the 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament. The first thing that we should notice is Nabokov’s usage in the quarterfinals. Why Bykov let him between the pipes after such a bad performance in the first period? While it’s easy to talk with hindsight and claim that Bryzgalov should have started, it’s safe to say that he should have been benched after the third goal or the first period to try sparking the team. He did had a couple of nice saves, but, conceding goal after goal, he lost confidence. When Bykov swapped him with Bryzgalov, the game was 6-1, too late.

Another problem of this team has been the powerplay. The Russians could assemble man advantage units made up of most of the world’s best players and yet they were the third last worst team in the round robin with 12.5%. The same percentage as Germany, who surely didn’t ice players of the caliber of Ovechkin, Malkin, Semin and Kovalchuk…on the same line. If we take the overall rankings, Russia stays the ninth seed with 15%. Once again, these aren’t statistics you can put together if you want your team to be a contender.

The third coaching’s fault was probably an over usage of the third and fourth liners. During the quarterfinals, only in the third period Bykov gave the top lines a bigger role, but once again, it was too late. Besides, Semin played not even three minutes in the game’s final stanza.

The last thing we’ll notice was that most of time team Russia didn’t feature good teamplay, but mostly relied on one-by-ones or trying to do it all alone.
Vyacheslav Bykov has been team Russia’s second big disappointment after Nabokov. It looked like a good coach was finally found, but it looks like he’s not Olympic quality.

Reason 1: Let’s face it, Canada was the best team

Canada dominated Russia since the first minute. After the first period many would have asked if this was a WJC game or an Olympic game as the game was loopsided in favor of the Canadians in a fashion never seen during international games. In the quarterfinal match Canada had much more than Russia in all departments: a better goalie (Luongo), better defensive play and, a bit surprisingly, better offense too. They might have less “names”, but they managed to overcome all this with a more focus and physical play. There isn’t much else to say on this matter, simply the best team deservedly won.

Russian Hockey Federation will have plenty to think over in order to avoid another debacle on the home soil in 2014.

Vyacheslav Bykov: “Yeah, let’s bring gibbets and kill Team Russia on the Red Square” (Photo © sportbox.ru)

Team Russia coach, Vyacheslav Bykov, gave an interview to Sovetskiy Sport where he talked about the quarterfinal game between Russia and Canada.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Bykov: “I would like to congratulate Canada with this victory. Unfortunately, the Olympic Games are over for us. I would like apologize to our fans. Today we faced a very strong team. We couldn’t get out of their pressure since the very beginning. It was really hard. We tried different variants to change the game and move it to the opponent’s zone, but we failed. Canada demonstrated very interesting hockey. It was a pleasure to watch them, and I can’t say the same about our team.”

– Maybe the reason of the loss is that the Russian players visited some parties recently?
Bykov: “Do not search for something that does not exist! The players were preparing really hard.”

– Don’t you think that such a loss in the Olympic quarterfinal requires a more in-depth explanation?
Bykov: “Yeah, let’s bring some guillotines and gibbets. We have 35 men in the hockey team, let’s kill them on the Red Square! What’s the point of trying to find out who is guilty now? When you lose 0-1, does it mean that this loss is better? There are teams that say: “We lost but we did it with dignity!” It doesn’t matter if it’s 2-3, 2-4, a loss is a loss.
You want to blame someone? Blame me. We don’t have a grudge against the players, they tried hard.”

– What about you?
Bykov: “I made some mistakes. Anyway I will watch the game again and analyze it. If the opponent defeated us, we weren’t good at something.”

– At what exactly? You aren’t talking about something specifically.
Bykov: “And I won’t… I want to deliver my message to you, but you aren’t listening. Hats off to Canada. They were the best. Our team was a level lower than their team. Today. But these are our best players whom we invited to the team. They did their best.
We failed to win. I want to emphasize it once again: we aren’t going to blame someone. Never. If you want you can go on and try it yourself: find out who slept with whom, who ate something wrong or who didn’t go with the team by bus. The reasons of the failure are that the opponent dominated us, that’s all.”

Canada defeats Russia 7-3 (Photo © Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Team Russia lost 7-3 to Team Canada in the 2010 Olympic Tournament‘s quarterfinal.

A goal by Ryan Getzlaf gave the Canadians an early lead. Team Russia didn’t use a powerplay chance and Dan Boyle made it a 2-0 game at the twelfth. Rick Nash scored the 3-0 goal some seconds later with a quick counterattack.

But the Russians didn’t give up and with a blue line shot by Dmitriy Kalinin cut down Canada’s lead after fourteen minutes.

After a good scoring chance wasted by Ilya Kovalchuk, Brendan Morrow restore Team Canada’s three-goal lead with less than two minutes to go in the first period.

In the second period Canada scored two quick goals with Corey Perry and Shea Weber, and Bykov decided to bench Nabokov in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov.

Not much later Maxim Afinogenov with a nice shot scored the second goal of the game for the Russians, but midway through the game Corey Perry scored again after a neutral zone error by Sergei Zinoviev.

Russia added one goal to the count with a blue line slapshot by Sergei Gonchar to finish the second period 7-3.

In the third period team Russia tried hard and got a big chance with Evgeni Malkin, but they didn’t manage to shift the momentum.

With this win Canada advances to the semifinals, where they will face Slovakia.

Vladislav Tretiak: “Nabokov will start in the quarterfinal” (Photo © Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Team Russia’s general manager at the Olympic Games, Vladislav Tretiak, gave an interview to Vitaliy Slavin of SovSport. Tretiak talked about the canceled practice on Monday, seriousness of Sergei Zinoviev’s injury and the players’ thoughts on a possible Russia-Canada quarterfinal.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

– Why did you cancel a practice on Monday?
Tretiak: “The coaches decided to give the players time to recover. The ice practice was optional and nobody wanted to skate. Everyone went to the gym and rode bikes. By the way, we are not the only team to cancel a practice. The Americans and Swedes also did it.”

– But Team Canada practiced. And what an intense practice it was – 10 exercises for 40 minutes!
Tretiak: “Well, Canada lost to the USA one day before, so they had to bring negative emotions down.”

– How is Sergei Zinoviev doing? Earlier there was information that the season was over for him.
Tretiak: “Yes, at first the doctors thought that the injury was that serious. However, after another examination the injury was found to be not very serious. On Tuesday he will try to practice with a special corset and then the coaches will decide if he’ll play in the quarterfinal. But Sergei himself is eager to hit the ice.”

– What did you think when you learned that Russia could face Canada in the quarterfinal?
Tretiak: “I thought that the world would see a battle of giants. That this is our fate, face Canada not in the final, as everyone hoped, but in the quarterfinal. Life is testing us and we have no choice. If we want to win the gold we have to defeat any opponent in the quarterfinal.”

– How did the players react?
Tretiak: “With no worry, just like me. It’s our fate.”

– Have Russia started preparing for the game against Canada already?
Tretiak: “Yes, soon Nabokov and I will study highlights from the Canada-USA game. By the way, Nabokov has already watched the game once again closely.”

– So Nabokov will start in the quarterfinal game?
Tretiak: “Yes.”

Ovechkin, Gonchar, Kovalchuk, Volchenkov talk about Czech Republic, hit on Jagr (Photo © Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

After the 4-2 victory against Czech Republic many players agreed that the Ovechkin hit on Jagr turned the momentum in Russia‘s favor. Team Russia players felt that this was the key event of the game and it helped their team getting the edge over Czech Republic.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of short quotes taken right after the game from Sergei Gonchar, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeny Nabokov, Alexander Ovechkin and Anton Volchenkov.

“Ovechkin has a very good physical play, that’s why he always tries to pressure the opponents”, Sergei Gonchar told Sport-Express. “Successful actions are always reflected to the team’s morale. This was the case of today’s game. I think the first line played very well.”

Ilya Kovalchuk agrees with him: “It was good when Ovechkin hit Jagr”, Kovalchuk said to Sovietskiy Sport. “He played hard, we got the puck and quickly scored the 3-1 goal. That helped us a lot. Hopefully Zinoviev will be allright. We will play for him too.”

Also Evgeny Nabokov felt that Ovechkin’s hit changed the flow of the game. “The hit on Jagr by Ovechkin was one of the most important moments of the game. Ovechkin is Ovechkin. In any situation he shows who he is and why he’s different from any other player”, he told Sovietskiy Sport. “These games are never easy. It was a very important game for us. We wanted to get the first seed in the Group B and get a bye for the quarterfinals. The game was very intense. It had plenty of shots on goal and battles in the slot. On the powerplays, the Czechs put two players in front of me so to cover my vision. A couple of times they managed to do so that I lost the puck from my field of vision, but the defensemen manage to clear it. The hardest moment was when we were up 3-2 as in such situations usually the opponents give you a good pressure.”

But Alexander Ovechkin himself played down the event a little bit, stating through Sovietskiy Sport that “every shift is important as it’s part of the game. When you want to help your team and play harder, and you are successful in that, you can wake up your team. I wasn’t the only one to play hard, all my team mates fought hard and did everything they could.”

Also Anton Volchenkov wanted to share his opinion, published at Sovietskiy Sport: “The most important part of the game was Kozlov’s goal. We finished the second period ahead. And in the third period Ovechkin had a great hit on Jagr. I know what hits are. That was an outstanding hit and after it we even scored. This too was a really important moment of the game.”

Translation by RussianHockeyFans.com

Alexander Ovechkin: “Jagr made a move to my side and I just hit him” (Photo © Gene J. Puskar, AP)

Team Russia forward Alexander Ovechkin commented on his hit on Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic in a game between Russia and Czech Republic at the Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver.

“I see him coming and my first reaction was to play the puck,” Ovechkin said to NHL.com . “He made a move to my side and I just hit him.”

Alexander Ovechkin switched the moment in favor of Russia with a bone crushing, open ice hit on Jaromir Jagr in the first few minutes of the final stanza. The puck then ended up on Alexander Semin’s stick, who served Evgeni Malkin with a great cross ice pass. Malkin one-timed the puck in for the game winning goal in Russia’s 4-2 win over Czech Republic.

Ovechkin told Russian site sports.ru, “I hit Jagr automatically. I’m happy that we managed to score a few seconds later. We hugged each other after the game. Jagr bears no grudge at me. This is hockey, this is the Olympics, anything can happen here.”

After the game Jagr told SovSport, “I wish I had a concussion, I would forget Ovechkin sooner. I don’t think the hit was legal.”

Jagr, quoted by Craig Custance of SportingNews.com, acted like a true teamplayer, not looking for excuses after losing the puck to Russia in the neutral zone. “The hit I don’t really care, the mistake, the turnover I made…that hurts. That hurt me the most.”

Kovalchuk, quoted by Craig Custance, added: “That’s a great hit. It’s a clean hit… It was a big moment for us.”

Video of Ovechkin’s hit on Jagr.

Russia defeats Czech Republic 4-2 (Photo © REUTERS/ Scott Audette)

In the round robin’s last game Team Russia defeated Team Czech Republic 4-2 and got a bye to the quarterfinals as they finished the Group B on the top of the standings with seven points against Czech Republic’s six, Slovakia’s five and Latvia’s zero. Team Russia’s first game of the medal round is scheduled for wednesday.

During the first period of the game the teams are still 0-0. Alexander Ovechkin had a couple of good chances, but Tomas Vokoun saved both attempts. Later on the Russians wasted a powerplay opportunity.

At the fifteenth minute Evgeni Malkin scored the 1-0 goal for Russia tapping in a rebound after a shot from the point by Sergei Gonchar.

At the end of the first period the Czechs tied it up with Tomas Plekanec taking full advantage of a double powerplay.

At the start of the second period Alexander Semin had a great chance during a delayed penalty against the Czechs, but his backhander went wide of the crease despite the open net. In the consequent powerplay Team Russia pressured well the opponents, but without creating havoc.

Five minutes to the second horn Viktor Kozlov broke the tie, scored the 2-1 goal for Russia after a scramble in the high slot.

Later at the end of the second period Sergei Zinoviev suffered from a knee injury after a play on the board caused by Alexander Radulov and had to be helped out of the ice.

Right on the start of the third period team Russia scored the third goal: after a big hit by Ovechkin on Jagr, Alexander Semin run down the left and with a great pass served Malkin right in front of the goalie. One-timer and 3-1.

But the Czech Republic didn’t give up and scored the 3-2 goal with Milan Michalek five minutes to the end of the regulation. The Czechs eventually pulled the goalie, but Pavel Datsyuk scored the emtpy netter with thirteen seconds to go.

“We were hungry for the win after the defeat against Slovakia”, Malkin told Russian TV channel Russia-2 after the game. “All the four lines played very well and I think we got a well deserved win. I like this new line I’m playing in, we are three quick players and we played very well today. We played very actively. Ovechkin played a great game, we really wanted to win. We still make some errors in the defensive zone, we will work on them in the next practices.”

Evgeny Nabokov finished the match with 23 saves.

2010 Olympics: Russia – Czech Republic preview (Photo © Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Team Russia‘s opponent in the third round robin match of the 2010 Olympic Tournament will be team Czech Republic. The Czechs, lead by the evergreen Jaromir Jagr, feature a very good lineup with plenty of NHL caliber players.

Russia has to skate past Czech Republic in order to secure the first seed in the Group B and get a bye into the quarterfinals. The Czechs are on the top of the standings with six points in two games. The Slovaks follow with five points, but they played three games.

Team Russia will try hard to put the 1-2 defeat against Slovakia in the past. “It’s always tough to lose, but it’s good to have it happen now in the tournament,” Alexander Ovechkin told espn.com.

Most likely team Russia’s lineup will undergo many changes. Vyacheslav Bykov will swap Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk. “We try different combinations”, said Bykov to sportbox.ru, “so that it would be possible to vary the lines if necessary.”

With this changes Ovechkin and Malkin will be paired together. “I think that now in our line there will be more speed and physical play”, Ovechkin told Sovietskiy Sport. “We have to play our game and try not to do too much, or we won’t be successfull.”

Evgeny Nabokov is going to get another start after the first win over Latvia, while Sergei Fedorov is going to play after missing a practice.

The puck is going to be dropped at the local 12 AM.