Eurolanche

Down 3-1, Russia wins 7-3

In a highly anticipated match-up, Russia and Sweden met tonight at the Globe Arena in an emotional battle of undefeated teams at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Down 3-1, Russia scored six unanswered goals to win 7-3. Yevgeni Malkin was the star of the game with a hat trick and proved a major catalyst in the Russian comeback. "Today he played unbelievable," said Pavel Datsyuk. "He did a good job."

The last time these teams met in World Championship competition was 2009 when Russia won a 6-5 shootout in overtime; and this was another high scoring affair. A capacity crowd of 11,500 fans was on hand to witness this game and early on Sweden was buoyed by the energy of those in attendance, taking a 2-1 lead after the first twenty minutes of play.

At 4:38 of the period, Alexander Popov was called for holding the stick. With 42 seconds remaining in the penalty, Erik Karlsson sent a wrist shot on goal that blew past Semyon Varlamov. The tally came at 5:57 of the first period with Viktor St?lberg and Daniel Alfredsson adding assists. Alexander Popov tied the game at 1-1, converting a pass from Malkin with Karlsson in pursuit. It was his second of the World Championship.

With 5:27 remaining and 55 seconds on a Denis Kokarev interference penalty, Henrik Zetterberg re-established Sweden’s lead. The middle period was as entertaining, featuring skill and passion. Russia nearly tied matters when Sergei Shirokov was fed a pass that sent him on a break but could not lift the puck past Viktor Fasth’s outstretched left pad.

Sweden responded by adding another in the middle frame that extended their lead to two when Johan Franzén scored to make it 3-1 at 9:36. Emotions ran high between the two teams throughout, particularly near the end of the second period when Franzén was called for interference on Alexei Yemelin. Malkin took advantage of the man advantage to score a power play goal. His shot squirted through Fasth’s pads and through to cut the lead to one.

Clearly out of frustration with Russia scoring that second goal, Franzén was called for a double roughing penalty at 18:06. This time, Yemelin made Sweden pay with a goal in the remaining 1:33 of the period to tie it at 3-3. "They scored a couple of lucky ones to tie it up in the second," said Victor Hedman. "They scored on a 5-on-3 there. There were a couple of calls we didn’t really like."

Russia dominated the third, taking its first lead of the game some 15 seconds into the period when Alexander Perezhogin batted a puck out of the air and into the net. "They got some momentum and then they scored right away in the third period," said Hedman. "We can’t let them score five in a row. We need to stop the bleeding before it gets too big, and we didn’t do that today."

Things became even more heated when Dmitri Kalinin cross-checked Franzén in the face, earning him a match penalty. Franzén would not return to the game and it is feared he has a broken nose. Sweden would get their share of opportunities with the five-minute advantage but could not score, which proved a pivotal juncture in the game.

Malkin added second and third goals of the game at 2:40 and 11:08, respectively that put the game away. With the win, Russia takes sole possession of the Stockholm group with 15 points in five games without a loss. "They’ve put themselves in a good spot for the quarter-finals," said Niklas Hjalmarsson. "It’s a pretty good chance they’re going to finish first and play the fourth-seeded team. They’ll have a little bit easier game in the quarter-finals. At the same time, it’s going to be tough games all the way if you’re going to take the gold.“

-by John Sanful for IIHF.com-