San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov sparkled in goal for Team Russia, stopping 27 shots for the 5-0 shutout over Sweden.

Russia learns lesson,
applies it to Swedes
By Rich Libero | NHL.com
Feb. 16, 2006

TORINO, Italy -- Smarting from their late-game loss to Slovakia Wednesday night, the Russians entered their game against Sweden Thursday determined to correct their errors. They passed the test with an A.

"We made some adjustments from the mistakes we made yesterday and we tried not to make them today," Russian captain Alexei Kovalev said.

Kovalev and Alexander Ovechkin scored second-period goals less than a minute apart as the Russians dismantled a stunned Sweden, 5-0. The Russians shared the puck equally as five different players scored highlight-reel goals. Maxim Shushinsky, Viktor Kozlov and Maxim Afinogenov also got on the board.

"You are begging for trouble when you give up 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s to a speedy team like this," Sweden's Mats Sundin said.

Both teams traded chances in a tight-checking, physical first period. But somewhere along the line, Sweden lost cohesion. They were victims of penalties and missed chances that ended up going in the other direction.

Kovalev's goal came on the power play. He controlled the puck in the circle to right of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and with Pavel Datsyuk setting a screen, picked the far post and hit with an impressive slapper.

Less than a minute later, a Swedish breakdown saw Afinogenov leading a 3-on-2 break. He dropped the puck for Alexei Yashin, who unleashed a bomb of a slap shot from mid-slot. Lundqvist made the initial save, but couldn't control the rebound, which fell to Ovechkin, who was camped out to the left of the goal. The Washington Capitals' super rookie slammed the loose puck home to open his Olympic scoring account.

"Yesterday we tried to be fancy and dangle with the puck," defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said. "It's a Russian thing and sometimes we don't shoot the puck enough, but today we shot more."

Datsyuk agreed: "We had more shooting, more rebounding. That was the key. We were maybe a bit casual yesterday."

The Russians admit they may have gotten a little too fancy in their opening game against the Slovaks. The first period of that game was a wild and woolly affair and it seems that the Russians are easily baited into playing a wide-open game. They simply cannot resist the urge to entertain.

"It's not about making hockey look interesting," Kasparaitis said. "It's about winning."

Against Sweden the Russians managed to do both while also proclaiming themselves as very much a contender for the gold medal. As Ovechkin put it: "We have young guys and we have ... medium guys."

The Russians have a blend of youth and experience to go with blinding speed and incredible one-on-one puckhandling abilities. But if they're not getting sucked into playing firewagon hockey, they some times suffer from individual players trying to do it all themselves. Things seemed to have changed on that front.

Montreal's Alexei Kovalev contributed a goal, his second of the Olympics, in Team Russia's 5-0 victory over Sweden.

The influx of new talent meant that the Russians weren't completely familiar with each other against the Slovaks.

"It was the second game we've played with each other," Ovechkin said. "The first game it was like a looking game. Me, Yashin and Afinogenov played very well (together)."

It took one loss and two games, but the Russians quickly have gotten a feel for one another. And they got some sparkling goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov, who stopped 27 Swedish shots for the shutout.

"We showed today that we could play defense," Nabokov said. "I am very happy with the shutout. It was a full team effort."

After a solid first period, the Swedes seemed to lose some of their team cohesion. "I thought we had a good first period and had lots of chances," Sweden's Daniel Alfredsson said.

Sweden had only nine shots in the first period, but Nabokov made a big stop of a Jergen Jonsson shot from the top of the slot at 13:57 and thwarted a Sundin stuff attempt after Sweden stitched together five straight passes to create the chance.

The Swedes will face Latvia Saturday after a day of rest on Friday. They will use the down time to regroup. But they must be careful with Latvia as the scrappy little team tied Team USA in their opener and played tough against the Slovaks.

Some might call Latvia the Belarus of this tournament. The Swedes don't want to hear that, having been stunned in the quarterfinals by Belarus at the Salt Lake Olympics.

"Last time we were perfect in the first three games and got to the quarterfinals and had a bad game and we were out," Sundin said. "Maybe we got our bad game out of the way."

On Sweden's list of to-do's: Take better care of the puck.

"I think the game was all about turnovers," Kovalev said. "They made many mistakes and it cost them."