The score in the match was opened in the
first period’s last second by Russia’s defenseman Vyacheslav Voinov.
PYEONGCHANG,
February 25. /TASS/. The closing day of the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea’s
PyeongChang entered the history of the Russian Olympic ice hockey with the team
of neutral athletes from Russia edging the team from Germany 4-3 in the
overtime of the match for the gold medal on Sunday.
The match
for the 2018 PyeongChang ice hockey gold at the 10,000-seat capacity Gangneung
Hockey Center was the first Olympic final in 20 years for the team from Russia,
which lost the gold medal game to the Czech Republic at the 1998 Winter Games
in Japan’s Nagano.
However,
this was the first ever final in the history of the German Olympic ice hockey
team. Germany’s best Olympic results in ice hockey were the bronze at the 1932
Winter Games in Lake Placid, the United States, and another bronze at the 1976
Olympics in Austria’s Innsbruck.
With just
15 seconds into the match, Russia’s Sergei Andronov received a two-minute
penalty for tripping, giving Germany an opportunity of testing the Russian
defense on the power play. However, the Germans failed to unpack the goal of
the Russian team, solidly guarded by goalkeeper Vasily Koshechkin.
The Russian
players, who participated in the 2018 Olympics under the neutral status flying
the colors of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) flag, also did not
use an opportunity to score on the power play with little over eight minutes
remaining in the opening period, when German defender Christian Ehrhoff was
sent to the penalty booth for hooking.
The first
period was about to end scoreless, but with only half a second left before the
break, Russia’s Vyacheslav Voinov cannoned a puck almost from the blue line
into the left upper corner of the net behind German goalkeeper Danny aus den
Birken to open the score at 1-0.
Russia’s neutral ice hockey squad began the 2018 Olympic tournament with the 2-3 defeat at the hands of Slovakia, but then gained a solid track roaming on the main time victories in all the matches up to today’s final.
The German
team, on the other hand, began their Olympic campaign with two defeats in a
row, but later regained control clinching to victories in other games before
the play-off round, which caused what could be called a sensation in the
Olympic history of ice hockey.
The Germans
faced renowned Sweden in the quarterfinals and stunned the Tre Kronor with 4-3
win. Going later in the semifinals, Germany routed the 2010 and 2014 Olympic
Champions Canada with the same winning score of 4-3.
This is why
Team Germany were not expected to give up easily on the Red Machine and they
answered to tie the score at 1-1 in the middle of the second period, when
forward Felix Schutz delivered a strong shot from the right wing and the puck
ricocheted off Koshechkin’s glove tumbling into the Russian goal.
The scored
goal heated up the game of both teams with an exchange of intensive attacks on
each side, but the score of 1-1 remained flashing unaltered on the scoreboard
as both teams retreated to locker rooms for the break before the closing
period.
"We
need to play a simple game as we are now overcautious," Russia’s Sergei
Andronov said after the second period. "We need to calm down and try not
to give up the game."
The closing
20-minute stretch of the game was scoreless for the most of the time, but with
over seven minutes of the game time left, Russia’s Nikita Gusev scored a goal
into the German net at a sharp angle from the left wing.
But while
the Russian ice hockey fans were still cheering loudly at the stadium’s
spectator stands in PyeongChang celebrating the goal, it took Germany only ten
seconds to respond and to tie the score again with a goal from forward Dominik
Kahun.
Several
minutes later, German defenseman Jonas Muller put another puck into the Russian
net to give his team the 3-2 advantage over the Red Machine and to silence the
disappointed Russian fans.
The game
for the team from Russia went further for the worse as its player Sergei
Kalinin was placed in a penalty booth giving Germany a two-minute advantage on
the power play.
With an
absence of one field player on the ice, the squad from Russia managed to switch
from the defense to the offensive burst, which saw Nikita Gusev packing the net
of the German team with another puck to tie the score at 3-3 on the last
minute, sending the game for the Olympic gold to the overtime.
Ten minutes
in the overtime, Germany’s Patrick Reimer was handed a penalty for high
sticking and gave a two-minute advantage of five against four field players for
the Red Machine.
Russia’s
Kirill Kaprizov was there to utilize the opportunity and sent the victorious
goal in the German net from the right wing to bring his team the much coveted
Olympic gold.
The team of
athletes from Russia, including the country’s ice hockey players, took part in
the 23rd Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang under the neutral status.
Late last
year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the membership of the
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) over doping abuse allegations but allowed clean
Russian athletes to participate in the 2018 Winter Games under the Olympic flag
and in the neutral status of an Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR).
Source: ITAR-TASS 25-02-2018
