Russian defending champs into Olympic hockey final
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is through to the final of the men's ice hockey competition at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Sweden in a tense semifinal penalty shootout.
Following a goalless first period where Sweden enjoyed 12 shots to their rivals' 11, the ROC scored just 15 seconds into the second period through Anton Slepyshev with assists from Pavel Karnaukhov and Yegor Yakovlev.
But even though the win was in sight for the ROC, overtime was forced when Sweden's Anton Lander scored on the 46:22 mark to tie the match 1-1.
As no victor could be found in an additional 10 minutes' playing time, the game headed to a nail-biting penalty shootout where eight rounds were needed for defending champions the ROC to see off the Swedes.
Bagging the winner for the ROC, Arseni Gritsyuk was the man of the hour and set up a final meeting with Finland after they beat Slovakia earlier on Friday.
As Sweden face Slovakia for the bronze medal, the Russian team has the chance to exact revenge on the Finns for a heartbreaking overtime loss in the Channel One Cup in December last year.
The Finns have never won the men's Olympic gold in the sport, and will look to make history on Sunday after losing to Russia and Sweden in 1988 and 2006 round-robin and final formats respectively.
For the Russians, however, triumph would mean an eighth win overall, bringing them closer to all-time leaders Canada on nine, and their first back-to-back glory since Soviet Union dominance in the 1980s.
