The Russian national squad has retained the World Bandy Championship after beating Sweden 6-1 in the final in Moscow. Bandy or “Russian hockey” is played on ice not with a puck but with a ball.

This year brought no surprises and the world's two strongest teams battled for the top prize in Moscow's Olympic arena.

The side's group stage match ended with a win for the Swedes who were down 4-1 in the first half but then recovered to win the game 5-4.

With that in mind Russia started strongly and the first goal of the game came in the fifth minute after the team's captain Mikhail Sveshnikov set up teammate Aleksandr Tyukavin.

The second came nine minutes later when Ivan Maksimov found himself in the right place at the right time finishing off this attack.

Six minutes later it was Rinat Shamsutov's turn and he made no mistake dribbling past the Swedish defence scoring from long range.

Russia continued to storm the Swedish goalie and it was Tyukavin for the brace with a wonderfully executed corner stroke.

The Swedes thought they could see light at the end of the tunnel when two Russian players were sent off for ten minutes. Yunas Edling made no mistake from the twelve-metre mark sending the ball into the far right corner. And just as in their group stage match, the first half ended with Russia being 4-1 up.

The fifth goal soothed the tense crowd and the players when Sergey Obukhov stroked the ball in mid-air past the helpless Swedish goalie.

And the game was practically over 15 minutes before the final whistle when Ivan Maksimov grabbed his second.

“When we came out in the second half with the score being 4-1 we were thinking about the previous match. We knew that the fifth and sixth goals would be crucial and that’s what we did. We didn’t give Sweden any chances today until the end of the game,” Maksimov said after the match.