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| May 11, 2002 | Saturday | Safar 27, 1423 |
Slovakia face Russia in final
GOTHENBURG (Sweden), May 10: Slovakia knocked Sweden out of the World Ice Hockey Championships when they beat the host nation 2-0 in a penalty shootout Thursday.
Slovakia, who fought back from 2-0 down to finish 2-2 in regulation time, now meet Russia in the final Saturday.
Earlier, the Russians beat Finland 2-0 on penalties after their semifinal also finished 2-2 following overtime.
It was the second time in a row Slovakia had won after coming back from 2-0 down, having beaten Olympic champions Canada 3-2 in the quarter-finals.
“We were lucky, our goalie (Jan Lasak) played very well, and we were strong enough mentally to pull through,” Slovakia coach Jan Filc told reporters.
Per-Johan Axelsson put Sweden ahead from a pass by Ulf Dahlen in the first period and Thomas Johansson doubled the lead on a rebound shot in the 32nd minute.
But Slovakia pulled a goal back through Vladimir Orszagh after an assist by Zigmund Palffy with less than five minutes left of the opening period.
Palffy also assisted on Miroslav Satan’s equaliser with less than two minutes left of the third period, forcing 10 minutes of overtime.
Sweden failed to score from the four penalties fired by Ulf Dahlen, Jorgen Jonsson, Markus Naslund and Magnus Johansson at Lasak in the shootout, but Richard Lintner and Palffy netted for the Slovaks.
“We didn’t play very well in the second period, the Swedes were quicker,” Filc said. “But in the third, the Swedes seemed to slow down a little.”
Swede Pierre Hedin was sent off for two minutes in the third period after Satan crashed head-first into the board.
Satan laid on the ice looking hurt before leaving the rink to get checked by a doctor. Less than two minutes later he scored his equaliser, to the apparent irritation of the Swedish team.
“You can look at it objectively,” Filc said. “He flew into the board with his head and he was shocked and not sure of what happened to his neck.
“He had a doctor check him and he was OK. He never played theatre because he is a fair guy.”
Earlier, Russia had an inspired display by netminder Maxim Sokolov to thank for their victory over Finland.
Sokolov saved all four of Finland’s penalties in the shootout as Russia clinched the win with strikes from Valeri Karpov and Andrei Kovalenko.
Russia twice had to come from behind in regulation to set up the shootout.
Finland took the lead four minutes into the game when Jere Karalahti scored from close range after assistance from Raimo Helminen and Kimmo Timonen.
Dmitri Zatonski brought Russia level less than six minutes later, following a pass from Maxim Sushinski.
Niklas Hagman put Finland ahead again in the first minute of the second period on a rebound shot, but Russia drew level for a second time through Maxim Afinogenov at the halfway stage.
Forty goalless minutes then followed as Finland outshot their opponents but Sokolov kept them at bay, and continued to do so during 10 minutes of overtime.
Finland were scheduled to meet Sweden in the bronze medal game on Friday.—Reuters
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