The playmaker recalls all five triumphs of the Russian national team at the world hockey championships. The story is fifth-about gold 2014 in Minsk.

Russia is gold. Chapter 5. How Znarok took a revenge for Sochi, “cut the throat” to the Swedes, and ours won the 2014 World Cup

Russia is gold. Chapter 5. How Znarok took a revenge for Sochi, “cut the throat” to the Swedes, and ours won the 2014 World Cup

• Playmaker
• 12:45, 11.05.2021 11.05.2021

The playmaker recalls all five triumphs of the Russian national team at the world hockey championships. The story is fifth-about gold 2014 in Minsk.

Expectations from the national team

In February 2014, Russia failed at home games in Sochi. The blow was extremely painful. Waiting for victories at the Olympics, and the team completed the performance at the stage of the quarterfinals, losing the Finns. Zinetula Bilyaletdinov left the national team, and Oleg Znarok took his place in the spring. The coach for two consecutive years-in 2012 and 2013-led the Moscow Dynamo to the conquest of the Gagarin Cup. Therefore, his candidacy was not in doubt.

The banner was to “excite” not only for the Olympic catastrophe. The 2013 World Cup Russia also completed terribly. In the quarterfinals, our team was defeated by the Americans 8: 3, who assembled a rather medium composition to that tournament.

It was necessary to restore the shaky positions in the international arena. A decent team went to Minsk. An impressive reinforcement arrived from the NHL: the trio from Washington-Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Orlov, one of the leaders of Pittsburgh Malkin, who became the hero of the Golden for Russia, and three more attackers-Anisimov from the Columbus, Kulemin from Toronto And the Loquy from Carolina . Plus, the team of two Enhaelers – Bobrovsky (“Columbus”) and Medin (“Carolina”) received.

This time, Canadians brought a middle team, without large stars. The composition of the Swedes who became champions in 2013 was not impressive. The Russian team was seen as one of the main favorites of the tournament.

The Russian team in Minsk-2014 justified the status of a favorite. Photo: Globallookpress

The path to the finale

The championship began better not to imagine. In the starting duel with Switzerland, striker Lokomotiv Plotnikov opened the score for the 13th second. As a result, the defeat is 5: 0. Ovechkin scored, and Bobrovsky played to zero.

Then the extremely important victory over an uncomfortable rival was won – the Finns (4: 2). Then followed the match with the Americans. The game was a success to the Russians – 6: 1. Further, our team did not notice Kazakhstan (7: 2), but the game did not go with the Latvians, I had to sweat a little, but still won-4: 1.

Russia ahead of schedule entered the playoffs, and in the final matches of the group stage defeated Germany (3: 0) and Belarus (2: 1). Having finished in the first place in its group with a margin of seven points, our team unexpectedly received rivals in the quarterfinals of the French. They took the fourth place in another group, in the starting match, sensationally beat Canada in a series of shootouts (3: 2) and did not let the Slovaks into the four.Therefore, it was extremely dangerous to underestimate the opponent in the first stage of the playoffs.

But Znarok managed to set up the national team. In each of the periods, she scored a goal – Anisimov, Malkin and Kutuzov (3:0). Both North American teams did not make it to the semi-finals. The Canadians did not pass the Finns (2:3), and the Czechs beat the USA (4:3) with a minimum score. Another semi-finalist was the Swedes, who in the hardest struggle pulled out the victory from the Belarusians (3:2).

With Tre Krunur and met in the semifinals. The Swedes lost 1:3, although they opened the score (Meller – Plotnikov, Shirokov, Belov). The game was nervous, everyone remembers the famous gesture of Znark, who showed his Swedish colleague Rikard Grönborg how to cut his throat. After the game, Oleg Valeryevich tried to explain his emotions with a joke: they say, he showed that his throat hurts. But he did not avoid disqualification for the final. Znarok was outraged by the opponent's dirty play. But, of course, we had to restrain ourselves.

This gesture, addressed to the Swedish colleague, cost Oleg Znark participation in the 2014 World Cup final. Photo: social networks

The final

The hockey players did not notice the absence of the “main” on the bench. The match with the Finns was worthy of a decisive battle. Shirokov opened the opponent's goal in the middle of the first period, but we missed a goal in the locker room. Three seconds were not enough to go to the break with an advantage. In the 27th minute, the Finns took the lead, but, fortunately, the Russians bounced back almost instantly. Ovechkin equalized (2:2) after 43 seconds. And that was the turning point.

Then only ours scored. Before the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended the final in Minsk, Malkin scored (the winning goal), Zaripov and Tikhonov. A convincing victory 5:2 returned the championship title to Russia.

Championship goal video

Heroes

Unlike the golden World Cup 2012, where Evgeni Malkin towered over all his skills, this time there was no one hero in the team. It was the championship team. But, of course, this squad also had leaders.

Sergei Bobrovsky became the best goalkeeper at the World Cup. He was the first in all statistics, although the MVP went to the Finnish goalkeeper Pekka Rinne. He really was half the team for the Suomi team, although Bobrovsky outplayed him in the final.

A brilliant tournament was held by Viktor Tikhonov, who scored a double against the USA and put an end to the final. The SKA forward became the top scorer with 16 (8+8) points. In addition to Bobrovsky and Tikhonov, Sergey Plotnikov also entered the symbolic team. Good was defender Egor Yakovlev, recognized as the best player in the finals in our team. And, of course, Malkin's experience with Ovechkin was invaluable.

Sergei Plotnikov and Viktor Tikhonov held a tournament of life. Photo: fotostrana.ru

Trainer

Znarok managed to restart the national team after two painful setbacks. Ten victories in ten matches slightly smoothed the impression of the season after the Olympic slap in the face. But the pain of defeat in Sochi 2014 will never subside. At least until the moment when Russia finally wins the tournament with the participation of all the strongest hockey players in the world.

For seven years from 2008 to 2014, Russia won the four world championships. Znarok was already the third coach who brought gold during this period. Therefore, the situation was seen so that the coach is an important, but not the main part in the success of the national team. Everyone was sure that our hockey is on the right track. Who knew that this victory would be the last at the World Cup to this day.

Oleg Znarok – while the last coach, who led the Russian team to the Gold of the World Cup. Photo: Globallookpress

Russian team at the 2014 World Cup

Compound

Goalkeepers: Anton Bogobin, Andrey Vasilevsky, Sergey Bobrovsky

Defenders: Andrey Zubarev, Denis Denisov, Alexander Kutuzov, Dmitry Orlov, Yegor Yakovlev, Maxim Chudinov, Anton Belov, Evgeny Medvedev

Forwards: Alexander Ovechkin, Victor Tikhonov, Evgeny Malkin, Sergey Plotnikov, Danis Zaripov, Sergey Kalinin, Nikolai Kulemin, Artem Anisimov, Sergey Shirokov, Evgeny Dadonov, Alexander Burmistrov, Vadim Shipachev, Andrey Loktionov, Evgeny Kuznetsov

Matches

Group. May 9. Minsk. Russia – Switzerland – 5: 0 (3: 0, 1: 0, 1: 0)
Our goals: Plotnikov, Ovechkin, Shipachev, Belov, Zaripov

Group. May 11. Minsk. Russia – Finland – 4: 2 (2: 1, 2: 1, 0: 0)
Our goals: Tikhonov, Ovechkin, Kulemin, Kalinin

Group. 12 May. Minsk. Russia – USA – 6: 1 (2: 0, 4: 1, 0: 0)
Our goals: Kulemin, Ovechkin, Tikhonov (2), Kuznetsov, Plotnikov

Group. May 14. Minsk. Russia – Kazakhstan – 7: 2 (1: 0, 3: 0, 3: 2)
Our goals: Plotnikov (2), Yakovlev, Zaripov, Kulemin, Tikhonov, Burmistrov

Group. May 17. Minsk. Russia – Latvia – 4: 1 (3: 1, 1: 0, 0: 0)
Our goals: Tikhonov (2), Shirokov, Kalinin

Group. May 18. Minsk. Russia – Germany – 3: 0 (0: 0, 0: 0, 3: 0)
Our goals: Shipachev, Shirokov, Tikhonov

Group. May 20. Minsk. Russia – Belarus – 2: 1 (0: 0, 2: 0, 0: 1)
Our goals: Plotnikov, Shipachev

1/4 finals. 22nd of May. Minsk. Russia – France – 3: 0 (1: 0, 1: 0, 1: 0)
Our goals: Anisimov, Malkin, Kutuzov

1/2 finals. May 24. Minsk. Russia – Sweden – 3: 1 (2: 1, 1: 0, 0: 0)
Our goals: Plotnikov, Shirokov, Belov

The final. May 25. Minsk. Russia – Finland – 5: 2 (1: 1, 2: 1, 2: 0)
Our goals: Shirokov, Ovechkin, Malkin, Zaripov, Tikhonov

The best scorers of the 2014 World Cup

Player	The national team	Goals	Programs	Glasses
Victor Tikhonov		8	8	16
Danis Zaripov		3	10	13
Sergey Plotnikov		6	6	12
Yori Lecherey		3	9	12
Antoine Russel		6	5	11
Joachim Lindstrom		5	6	11
Michel Miklik		4	7	11
Alexander Ovechkin		4	7	11
Seth Jones		2	9	11
Johnny Godro		2	8	10

The ending. The first chapter told about the 1993 World Cup, in the second-about the 2008 World Cup, in the third-about the 2009 World Cup, in the fourth-about the 2012 World Cup.