ROC women prepare for Swiss showdown
Team ROC faces a rematch with Switzerland in the knock-out phase of the Women’s Olympic tournament in Beijing. A disappointing loss against previously winless Finland saw the team finish fourth in Group A. Thus, the Red Machine will take part in the only quarter-final that doesn’t involve an outside from Group B, which was comprised of the five lower-ranked teams in the tournament.
Team ROC 0 Team Finland 5 (0-2, 0-3, 0-0)
After the kerfuffle surrounding masks in yesterday’s game against Canada, Finland also decided to don protective equipment for today’s encounter. Team ROC, meanwhile, had to cope without leading scorer Polina Bolgareva, who has three of her team’s six goals in Beijing. She went into isolation, leaving head coach Evgeny Bobariko with only 18 players available. That included Lyudmila Belyakova, released from isolation on the day of the game. She arrived at the arena just 10 minutes before the warm-up and was plunged into her first action in Beijing.
Belyakova, who said it was “a miracle” that she played at all, was not too downhearted despite the heavy loss. “I can’t say that everything is great for Finland and we are in a hole,” she said. “No, we’re a good team, but a lot of our leaders are out sick. That made a difference today.”
Despite being short-benched yet again, Team ROC was competitive early on. Finland got the game’s first big chance when Elisa Holopainen hit the post, but the Russians responded when Anna Shokhina released Polina Luchnikova, only to shoot straight at Anni Keisala in the Finnish net. Gradually, though, Finland got on top. Sanni Rantala opened the scoring midway through the first period, and late in the frame KRS Vanke Rays forward Michelle Karvinen got the second on the power play.
It all went wrong for Team ROC in the middle frame as Finland grabbed three unanswered goals. Jenniina Nylund extended the lead with a shot that bounced off Maria Sorokina’s stick and through her pads, then power play goals from two other Vanke Rays players, Minttu Tuominen and Susanna Tapani, stretched the lead to an unassailable 5-0. In the middle of all that, Valeria Merkusheva replaced Sorokina in goal for her first action of the tournament.
A scoreless third period gave the Russians a chance to regroup somewhat — but the hard work starts now as Bobariko and his team look to post a second victory over Switzerland and maintain their push for a first ever Olympic medal in women’s hockey.
“We played quite well in the third period,” said team captain Anna Shokhina. “I think that sets us up for the next game.”
“Against Switzerland we capitalized on our chances but against Finland we couldn’t score. We have to calm down a bit and we need to score goals to be able to play a good game.”
Canada on top, Sweden grabs last QF spot
Elsewhere, the final day of group stage action in the women’s tournament saw Canada take top spot in Group A with a 4-2 win over USA. Alex Carpenter, once of KRS Vanke Rays, got one of the American goals.
In Group B, Sweden defeated Denmark to pip China to third place. Emma Nordin, who is due to join the Chinese club after the Games, scored the opening goal in that 3-1 success. Earlier, Japan secured first place in the group with a shoot-out win over Czechia.
The quarter-final pairs, to be played on Feb. 11, are: Canada vs Sweden; USA vs Czechia; Finland vs Japan; ROC vs Switzerland.
