On the night of January 5, Moscow time, the Russian youth ice hockey team played a semifinal match in the framework of the World Championship for players under 20 years old. The rivals of the Russians in the semifinals were the national team of Sweden.
In the last two youth world ice hockey championships, the Russian national team met with the Swedish team in the semifinals. Both times, the Russians were offensively inferior to the Scandinavian hockey players with a minimum score. In 2015, the Russian national team in the MFM semifinals was again opposed by Swedish hockey players.
The first period of the match was not rich in scored goals, however, despite the fact that after the first twenty minutes of the game the scoreboard burned with zeros, the fans in the arena in Toronto did not get bored. In the first period, the game was more like a tactical game. Hockey players tried to fight for the puck in every section of the site, but this did not reflect negatively on the creation of scoring chances. One of the first chances to score was missed by the Russians. On the 7th minute, Bryntsev's throw shook the post of the Swedes' goal. The Scandinavian hockey players responded with several of their dangerous attacks. It was especially difficult for the Russians to keep the defense while playing in the minority. However, Shesterkin kept the goal of the Russian national team from a missed puck.
In the second period, in the first ten minutes, the Swedes tried to win the initiative. Valery Bragin's wards held out, and then in the 32nd minute, Alexander Sharov completed a brilliant counterattack of Russian hockey players with a throw to the top corner of the Swedes' goal. The Russians overcame the entire site in several gears and brought Alexander to a slaughter position. The Russian national team took the lead 1: 0. After that, our hockey players got a numerical advantage. Already in the 33rd minute, a powerful shot from the blue line of Ziyat Paigin made the Swedish goalkeeper surrender for the second time. This goal was the first for the Swedes in a minority game. After the second missed puck, the Scandinavians completely missed the threads of the game, which led to new dangerous attacks by the Russians. At the end of the second period, the puck crossed the Swedish goal line again. However, the goal was not recorded, since the puck crossed the cherished line after touching our hockey player's skate. Immediately after that, Leshchenko had another good moment. The striker jumped out for a rendezvous with the Swedish goalkeeper and threw him aimingly into the near top corner. However, Sederstrom deflected the puck with his shoulder. The second period ended with a significant game advantage of the Russian national team, which was recorded on the scoreboard of the arena in Toronto - ours won 2: 0.
The third period began with a take by Alexander Sharov. The Swedish defender hesitated behind his goal, which allowed Mamin to bring our forward to the shot. Alexander hit the top corner of the gate of the Swedes with an accurate throw. The advantage of the Russian national team increased to three goals (3: 0). The goal was scored in the 42nd minute. After that, the Russian national team began to play according to the score. The Swedes had some territorial superiority, but the Russians carried out dangerous counterattacks. Several times Russian hockey players had chances to score after going one-on-one with the goalkeeper of the Swedish national team.
Eight and a half minutes before the end of the third period, the Scandinavians managed to play one goal. Valmarch rolled onto a nickle and sent the puck into the Shesterkin goal from an uncomfortable hand (3: 1). After a missed goal, the Russians should have expected a nervous ending, but already in the 53rd minute Mamin sent the fourth puck into the Swedes' goal with finishing, restoring the advantage of the Russian national team to three goals. From that moment on, victorious confidence was felt in the game of Russian hockey players. Despite the fact that the Swedes tried to attack with large forces, there were no more goals scored against Shesterkin. Four minutes before the end of normal time, the Scandinavians replaced the goalkeeper with a field player, but this did not change the numbers on the scoreboard. True, twenty seconds before the end of the match, the Swedes scored the puck, but the referee of the meeting did not record a goal, since before the goal there was an attack by our goalkeeper.
The final score of the meeting is 4: 1 in favor of the Russian national team. Now Valery Bragin's wards are expected to face an opponent in the 2015 MFM final, who will be the winner of the Canada - Slovakia pair. The decisive match in the tournament will take place on January 6 at 4:00 Moscow time.
