By Steve Keating
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will try to bring their turbulent Beijing Games to a triumphant finish in the men’s ice hockey final on Sunday when the defending champions face off against Finland.
A doping storm engulfing 15-year-old ROC figure skater Kamila Valieva has enveloped that sport along with the entire Winter Olympics.
An ROC ice hockey triumph will not lift those clouds entirely but would be celebrated by the hockey loving nation and number one fan, Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Russia have not retained the Olympic ice hockey title since the glory days of the ‘Big Red Machine’ when a Unified Team won gold at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games after the former Soviet Union took the honours at Calgary 1988 and Sarajevo 1984.
Finland have made regular appearances on the podium, returning home with a medal from five of the previous seven Games, but they have never reached the top step.
Twice before the Finns have contested the final, at the 1988 Calgary and 2006 Turin Olympics, and will be hoping it is third time lucky.
When Finland defeated Sweden in Stockholm in 1995 to win the ice hockey world championship for the first time the team received a fighter jet escort home.
A win on Sunday and the players can expect an even more rousing welcome.
“It’s huge, of course,” said Finnish forward Sakari Manninen about playing for gold. “Going to an Olympic final is like a dream.
“You dream of those kind of moments, but at the same time (I try to) focus on the right things.”
ATTACKING FLAIR
The ROC was expected to bring plenty of attacking flair to Beijing but have reached the final on defence and goaltending.
While they have generated only 13 goals, five of those coming in a 6-5 loss to the Czech Republic, that was more than enough offence to register four wins to get them to the final.
The ROC has leaned heavily on the play of netminder Ivan Fedotov, who made a spectacular start to the Games by recording back-to-back shutouts of Switzerland and Denmark before getting shelled by the Czechs.
But the hulking goaltender was back at his stingy best when it mattered by holding Denmark in the quarter-finals and Sweden in semis to a single goal.
The ROC will need Fedotov back at his best against the Finns who feature two players tied for the Beijing Olympics scoring lead in Manninen and Teemu Hartikainen.
“We are going to keep that in our (dressing) room,” said ROC’s Damir Sharipzyanov, when asked what the game plan was for Finland. “We know how they play, they know how we play.
“It is going to be interesting.
“We got to the final and now it is the game of our life.”
Sweden and Slovakia will play for the bronze on Saturday.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Beijing. Editing by Ken Ferris)
