Russia was a team on a mission and they finished things off in style today beating Slovakia 6-2 to claim the gold medal at the IIHF World Championships in Finland.
It didn’t start off strong for Russia as Slovakia’s Zdeno Chara kicked off the scoring and putting the Cinderella Slovaks up 1-0 in the first period. That glory would be short-lived for the Slovaks as the line of Pavel Datsyuk, Alex Ovechkin, and Alexander Semin got hot.
Semin finished the game with two goals and an assist while Datsyuk had a goal and two assists and Ovechkin added two helpers. Yes Caps fans, we’re wondering where this Alex Semin was during the second round as well.
Tournament MVP Evgeni Malkin finished his monster performance at Worlds with a goal in the final game and took home the MVP trophy thanks to his 11 goals and 8 assists throughout the tournament. A gold medal, a World Championships MVP, and perhaps the Hart Trophy on top of it all. Not a bad year.
While it might look like a disappointing finish for Slovakia, considering they were playing for the memory of Pavol Demitra and nearly didn’t qualify for the quarterfinals, coming away with the silver is a huge victory of sorts for the Slovaks. Also, team captain Zdeno Chara did well to honor Demitra as you’ll see here.
Slovakia’s Zdeno Chara looks up as he wears a jersey in remembrance of Pavol Demitra, who was killed in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster in Russia, after receiving a silver medal at the end of the Ice Hockey World Championship final match against Russia in Helsinki on May 20, 2012. Russia defeated Slovakia 6-2. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/GettyImages)
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