News

Russia tops Slovakia to claim World Championship

Monday, 05.21.2012 / 10:19 AM / News
NHL.com

Slovakia put a scare into the Russians early when Zdeno Chara scored just 66 seconds in, but Russia, powered by two goals and an assist from Alex Semin, bounced back in a big way to overwhelm the Slovaks and win the Gold Medal Game of the 2012 IIHF World Championship 6-2 Sunday at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.

It is Russia's fourth world championship and its third in the last five years, and it punctuates a perfect tournament for the Russians who finished 10-0.

After Chara's goal had given Slovakia a lead that it held for nearly half of the first period, Semin's score at 9:57 from Alex Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk tied the game. At the end of the first the game was still even, but in the second period Russia broke it wide open. Alexander Perezhogin, Alexei Tereshenko and Semin all scored as Russia jumped out to a 4-1 lead.

The Russians tacked on two more as Datsyuk scored at 3:55 of the third period and Evgeni Malkin put the icing on the cake with 1:58 left in regulation with his tournament-best 11th goal of the World Championship. The goal enabled Malkin to edge Norway's Patrick Thoresen as the top scorer of the tournament with 19 points. Chara scored his second of the night at 9:37 of the third, but it amounted to little more than window dressing as Russia coasted the rest of the way to the gold medal.

Datsyuk tied Semin with a game-high three points, while Russian goalie Semyon Varlamov finished with 29 saves.

SCHEDULE

HOME
AWAY
PROMOTIONAL

STANDINGS

WESTERN CONFERENCE
  TEAM GP W L OT GF GA PTS
1 p - CHI 48 36 7 5 155 102 77
2 y - ANA 48 30 12 6 140 118 66
3 y - VAN 48 26 15 7 127 121 59
4 x - STL 48 29 17 2 129 115 60
5 x - LAK 48 27 16 5 133 118 59
6 x - SJS 48 25 16 7 124 116 57
7 x - DET 48 24 16 8 124 115 56
8 x - MIN 48 26 19 3 122 127 55
9 CBJ 48 24 17 7 120 119 55
10 PHX 48 21 18 9 125 131 51
11 DAL 48 22 22 4 130 142 48
12 EDM 48 19 22 7 125 134 45
13 CGY 48 19 25 4 128 160 42
14 NSH 48 16 23 9 111 139 41
15 COL 48 16 25 7 116 152 39

STATS

2012-2013 REGULAR SEASON
SKATERS: GP G A +/- Pts
P. Parenteau 48 18 25 -11 43
M. Duchene 47 17 26 -12 43
P. Stastny 40 9 15 -7 24
J. McGinn 47 11 11 -13 22
J. Mitchell 47 10 10 5 20
R. O'Reilly 29 6 14 -3 20
G. Landeskog 36 9 8 -4 17
T. Barrie 32 2 11 -11 13
C. McLeod 48 8 4 4 12
M. Hejduk 29 4 7 -7 11
 
GOALIES: W L OT Sv% GAA
J. Giguere 5 4 4 .908 2.84
S. Varlamov 11 21 3 .903 3.02
Avs Alert
coloradoavalanche.com is the official Web site of the Colorado Avalanche. The Colorado Avalanche and coloradoavalanche.com are trademarks of the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc.  NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2013 Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.