USA – Czech Republic 3:4 (end) | Russia – France2 3:0 (end) | Canada2 – Finland 2:3 (end)
Sweden2 – Belarus 3:2 (end)
final
Russia
3:0 (1:0, 1:0, 1:0)
France2
Thursday 22.05.2014, 16:00 • Minsk Arena, Minsk • World Championship
     
    There's the final buzzer, and with a very comfortable 3-0 victory against France the Russians are heading into the seminfinals! They were simply excellent again today, and in the next round their next unfortunate opponent will either be the tournament hosts Belarus or Sweden. Artyom Anisimov opened up the scoring, with then superstar Evgeniy Malkin and Alexander Kutuzov joining him on the scoresheet. Thanks for following the game with us, and see you again soon for more enthralling action from the 2014 IIHF World Championships! (18:10:06)
     
    60:00
    Game over.
     
    59:55
    We're already into the final seconds with Russia cruising into the semifinals 3-0!
     
    59:27
    The netminder is heading back to his goal however, for hooking Antoine Roussel has been punished. And he looks really angry about it smashing his stick around in the penalty box!
     
    59:09
    In that timeout Cristobal Huet has indeed been pulled for the extra skater!
     
    59:09
    And the French have taken a timeout! They want to at least get a goal for pride here!
     
    59:09
    Baptiste Amar spinning round to the right flank flicks the puck on target, but it's right into the midriff of Sergey Bobrovskiy
     
    57:26
    Both teams are back to full strength with time running down!
     
    57:00
    Besch! Shielding the puck away from the whole Russian defence Nicolas Besch cuts to the crease sharply on the right, and after a tricky deflection it trickles inches wide of the far post!
     
    55:26
    The penalties are really building up here, and this is a really controversial one! A French defender smashed one of his teammates in the face with his stick, but shockingly they have called Viktor Tikhonov for it! That's a really poor refereeing error!
     
    55:14
    And Russia now have two minutes on the powerplay in which to completely finish the game, Stephane Da Costa has been penalised for slashing
     
    54:57
    France really are running out of chances and Sergey Kalinin is back into the game for the Russians
     
    53:49
    Desrosiers! Julien Desrosiers is dished with an excellent pass standing all alone on the right faceoff circle, he slaps in first time but Sergey Bobrovskiy is equal to it with an agile save!
     
    52:57
    Sergey Kalinin for an obvious trip against his opponent has now been punished by the referees, and with just over seven minutes remaining the French have a very important powerplay opportunity
     
    52:11
    Despite pinning their opponents in their own zone Russia couldn't create any real chances and France are back at full strength
     
    50:11
    Russia are looking more and more powerful and they're going on the powerplay, Nicolas Besch is skating off to the penalty box for cross checking
     
    49:31
    Now Stephane Da Costa for the forlorn French on the right gets something going on the Russian crease, and with Sergey Bobrovskiy panicking his defence hack it clear!
     
    47:59
    Zaripov! It could have been four just like that! Again down the right flank the French defence is nowhere to be seen, but Cristobal Huet deals with Danis Zaripov's wrister!
     
    47:36
    Goal for Team Russia! They're edging ever closer to the semifinals! The rolling puck falls to ALEXANDER KUTUZOV on the right faceoff circle, and he absolutely rips a one timer high into the net! Brilliant goal and it's 3-0! Assists- Nikolay Kulyomin and Evgeniy Malkin
     
    46:41
    And the Russian goaltender now confidently holds on to a powerful wrister from distance. He hasn't had a lot of work to do but he looks very focused!
    Commentary by

    Shaun Nicolaides

    Goals & lineups Match log
    Goals and assists: 5. Anisimov (Yakovlev), 21. Malkin (Kulyomin, Tikhonov), 48. Kutuzov (Kulyomin, Malkin)

    Russia: Bobrovskiy (Vasilevskiy)- Chudinov, Denisov, Ovechkin, Plotnikov, Shipachyov- Kutuzov, Medvedev, Malkin, Kulyomin, Tikhonov- Belov, Yakovlev, Zaripov, Shirokov, Anisimov- Zubarev, Burmistrov, Kalinin, Dadonov, Kuznetsov
    France2: Huet (Hardy)- Auvitu, Besch, S Da Costa, Bellemare, Roussel- Manavian, Amar, Treille, Meunier, Desrosiers- Dieude Fauvel, Janil, Fleury, Ritz, T Da Costa- Chakiachvili, Tardif, Henderson, Raux, Guttig
    Referees: Jerabek, Kaval, Sidorenko, Carlson, Lederer, Valach