Delight for Russian women
Russia’s women made Olympic history by making the semi-finals for the first time thanks to a 6-2 victory over Switzerland.
The team’s heroine was Anna Shokhina, of Tornado Moscow Region in the Women’s Hockey League. She scored twice – one with her team killing a 3-on-5 penalty situation – as the OAR offense exploded at last.
But it was something of a redemption for the entire team after a torrid time in Group A action saw three defeats and just one goal scored. Captain Olga Sosina said: “We finally started converting the chances we’ve been creating all week. We raised our game, and didn’t make the kind of mistakes we had in our earlier games.”
Shokhina’s short-handed spectacular gave Russia the first-period lead, but the Swiss rallied to lead 2-1 midway through the second through Alina Muller and Lara Stalder. Vika Kulishova, an Olympic rookie from Tyumen got the vital tying goal, and Liana Ganeyeva’s deflected point shot proved to be the game-winner.
In the third, Shokhina shared a goal and an assist with Elena Dergachyova before Sosina’s empty-netter wrapped up an historic victory. Russia’s task will only get harder: next up it’s Canada again, a nation that has never lost a senior women’s international against Russia and handed Alexei Chistyakov’s girls a 0-5 drubbing at the start of this tournament. But Shokhina insists that OAR still has a chance.
“Canada has always beaten us in the past, but that doesn’t mean anything here,” she said. “We’ll battle, we’ll fight … we’ll do anything to get a win.”
After witnessing Shokhina & Co in their opening loss against Canada, Ilya Kovalchuk admitted that women’s hockey wasn’t really for him. Today’s compelling performance from his compatriots might encourage him to think again.
Valeriya Tarakanova.Russian women lose out in semi-finals Russia’s women battled hard in their semi-final against defending Olympic champion Canada, but could not upset the form book and suffered a 0-5 defeat.
The Canadians made a great start, opening the scoring in the second minute through Jennifer Wakefield, but were unable to runaway with the game in the manner many had expected. Russia’s goalie, Valeria Tarakanova, was in good form between the piping and it wasn’t until early in the second frame that Canada extended its advantage when Marie-Philip Poulin added a second.
Despite more resilient defense, the Russian girls couldn’t find a way back into the game: Yelena Dergachyova had a great chance to score on Shannon Szabados when it was still a one-goal game in the first period, but got her angles wrong when an open net beckoned and the goalie was redeemed. After that, Canada had little trouble holding the opposition at bay.
“We played better than in the group game,” said Anna Shokhina. “We tried to be more aggressive, we created more chances. If we'd scored that one into the open net maybe things would have been different.”
The start of the third period brought another quick goal for Canada, with Wakefield on target again. And now the floodgates opened; Emily Clark made it 4-0 31 seconds later and the game was well and truly gone. A power play goal late on from Rebecca Johnston saw the Canadians repeat their 5-0 scoreline from the group stage.
However, there was anger from the Russians about an incident that saw Shokhina take a stick to the throat. The forward was not badly injured and returned to the game, but she and her team-mates were unhappy that there was no penalty called on the Canadians.
“The refs have got to look at things like that,” said head coach Alexei Chistyakov. “We should have fair play, that's why there are four officials on the ice. I don't want to say any more, you all saw it.”
The Olympic Athletes from Russia still have a chance of bringing home their first ever women’s hockey medal from the Games. On Thursday, the team faces Finland in the bronze-medal game at Kwandong Hockey Centre.
Captain Olga Sosina said: “It's all or nothing now. In the first game against the Finns, it was clear that we need to take fewer penalties, get more shots off and really battle for every rebound.”
Heartbreak for Russia’s women
The women’s bronze medal game ended in a narrow, painful defeat for Russia against Finland, denying the team its first ever Olympic medal in the sport.
The Finns won a hard-fought battle 3-2 to claim third place in the competition. Goals from Olga Sosina and Lyudmila Belyakova weren’t enough to save the game against a Finnish side that took its chances. Despite the loss, head coach Alexei Chistyakov believes that the tournament has further raised the profile of the women’s game – and called on hockey bosses to get behind the future development of women’s hockey across the country.
“We had some real positives from the Games, but its clear to everyone that we don’t have enough teams in the Women’s Hockey League,” he said. “In several hockey regions, the directors don’t pay enough attention to women’s hockey and don’t want to help with its development. I don’t really understand why not.
“It’s clear that, for some men in Russia, hockey is not a women’s game. But I think these Olympics, and the performance of our team as they represented their country, will start to change the minds of at least some of the population.”
Team captain Sosina added: “We really felt the support from our fans today. We had chances to win it, but as you could see, we fell just short. I’m just sorry that we couldn’t live up to our hopes.”
The women’s bronze medal game ended in a narrow, painful defeat for Russia against Finland, denying the team its first ever Olympic medal in the sport.
The Finns won a hard-fought battle 3-2 to claim third place in the competition. Goals from Olga Sosina and Lyudmila Belyakova weren’t enough to save the game against a Finnish side that took its chances. Despite the loss, head coach Alexei Chistyakov believes that the tournament has further raised the profile of the women’s game – and called on hockey bosses to get behind the future development of women’s hockey across the country.
“We had some real positives from the Games, but its clear to everyone that we don’t have enough teams in the Women’s Hockey League,” he said. “In several hockey regions, the directors don’t pay enough attention to women’s hockey and don’t want to help with its development. I don’t really understand why not.
“It’s clear that, for some men in Russia, hockey is not a women’s game. But I think these Olympics, and the performance of our team as they represented their country, will start to change the minds of at least some of the population.”
Team captain Sosina added: “We really felt the support from our fans today. We had chances to win it, but as you could see, we fell just short. I’m just sorry that we couldn’t live up to our hopes.”
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