Sport

Finland beat Russia in Olympic ice hockey

A dark day for the hosts in Sochi as they bow out in the quarter-finals

Alexander Ovechkin (red) of Russia after Finland beat his side 3-1 in the men’s ice hockey quarter-final play-off at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Photograph: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Wed Feb 19 2014 - 15:25

Russia 1 Finland 3

Russia were eliminated from the men’s ice hockey competition at the Sochi Games on Wednesday following a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland.

The host nation entered the 12-team tournament as one of the favourites but ultimately proved no match for a Finnish team that won the bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Finland’s Teemu Selanne (left) scores against Russia’s goalie Semyon Varlamov during the first period of their men’s quarter-final at the Sochi 2014 Winter OlympicsPhotograph: Martin Rose/Reuters

Yevgeni Malkin of Russia (right) hits Ossi Vaananen of Finland with his stick during the Men’s Ice Hockey quarter-final at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics at Bolshoi Ice Dome. Photograph: Martin Rose/Getty Images

Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk opened the scoring eight minutes into the game on a powerplay when he sent a one-timer from the slot right under the crossbar.

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Finland responded 87 seconds later when Juhamatti Aaltonen took a puck along the goal line before sending it under Russian goalie Semyon Varlamov’s left arm.

Selanne scored after a turnover outside the Russian end, he slipped a Mikael Granlund pass between Varlamov’s legs with under three minutes to play in the opening period.

Finland will play Sweden in one of Friday’s two semi-finals.

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