Pashin hat trick propels Russia into final

The Piestany semi-final game did start better for the Russians, although they did not put the opposing goalie in danger in the first seconds, they were given a power play just two minutes into the game. Joel Blomqvist had a lot of work during these two minutes; however, he remained mistake-less for now. But that could not be said anymore six minutes after the opening face-off when Vasily Ponomarev found Alexander Pashin waiting in the slot and the Russian No. 28 did not give the goalie any chance. The Finns could have equalized very quickly, as Eemil Viro appeared just in front of the crease, but his shot was blocked by a quick-reacting defender.

Nevertheless, "Suomi" got its revenge not too much later, after a mistake from the Russian defence, Juuso Maenpaa got into a breakaway and did not have any trouble hitting the top shelf from the left side. Russia was trying its best to grasp the lead back as soon as possible, however, the home team was facing an almost unbreakable blue defence and had to fight for every foot of ice. Two minutes before the period ended, the Russia had a chance to beat a very solid Joel Blomqvist and they did; however, Nikita Buruyanov’s shot only hit the left post and both teams went back into their locker rooms with an even score.

As same as in the first period, the Finns went short-handed pretty soon, this time they made a mistake when changing lines. Fortunately for them, they only had to defend against Russians for 49 seconds as they committed a foul too. But neither of these short power-plays brought either of the teams a very valuable goal, not even a big scoring chance. Russia was statically by far the more active side of the match as they were overshooting their opponents with ease, however, all hopes to get back ahead were being destroyed by Blomqvist.

The Finns started to erase the shots difference just before the half of the period, but during their most promising rise they were held back by another penalty. That gave the Russians another chance to restore their clear offensive advantage, nevertheless, they again did not prepare any big troubles for the Finnish goaltender. Both teams were getting frustrated by the lack of dangerous shots which lead into more mistakes and breaking the rules from both sides, therefore the fans did not enjoy a lot of 5-on-5 game. The contenders were constantly switching from power-play into short-handed play, but neither of them was able to take advantage of this.

The last period started a lot better for Finland, after a dirty hit and few little jabs thrown the Finns got into a power-play in which Kasper Puutio bombed his slapper right at the crossbar. Just few seconds after it was Eero Niemi who aimed perfectly in the top corner, however, Yaroslav Askarov made almost an impossible save to rob the Finnish shooter. The Russians started to slowly but steady get back into the game and it all hit the apex just after the half of the period, when Dmitry Zlodeyev received a nice pass to the open space and shot right by right post with Joel Blomqvist having no chance to stop the puck.

And yet another strike was to hit the Finns, only 59 seconds after Russia took back its lead Alexander Pashin punished the Finns for their lack of focus, skated through the standing defense and doubled his team’s lead. This was the breaking point of the duel as the Russians got really into the scoring mood and did not let Finland to get back in the contact. Three minutes before the final horn was to sound the Finns put all their eggs in one basket and pulled out Blomqvist, however, only a bit over 30 seconds after they did so Alexander Pashin completed a hat-trick with a quick shot from the red line. Although the blue-dressed players kept their passion and will and tried to at least score one more goal, they were unable to do so. Therefore, the Russians could celebrate a 4-1 win but especially advancing into the finale where will they meet the Canadians.