Olympics men’s hockey: OAR routs Slovenia, 8-2
Olympic Athletes from Russia pour it on Slovenia, picking up their first victory of the Olympics men’s hockey tournament.
After blowing a 2-0 lead in their opening game against Slovakia, the Olympic Athletes from Russia took out their frustrations on Slovenia. The end result was a 8-1 thumping that reminded the world why OAR are the favorites in this tournament.
Slovenia almost survived the first period onslaught to take a 0-0 tie into intermission. But a high sticking call on Jurij Repe put OAR on the power play. That’s when Pavel Datsyuk set up Sergei Mozyakin for a one-time blast from the top of the circle that beat goaltender Luka Gracnar to make it 1-0. 22 seconds later, Ilya Kovalchuk danced into the zone before throwing a point shot at the net. It hit a Slovenia stick and all of a sudden, it was 2-0 before Slovenia knew what hit them.
It didn’t get any better for Slovenia in the second period. OAR scored three goals in four minutes to go up 5-0 with 9:58 remaining. The highlight of the three goals was Kovalchuk beating the entire Slovenia defense before skating behind the net and feeding Ilya Kablukov for an easy goal into a wide open net.
Jan Mursak managed to ruin the shutout of Vasili Koshechkin through sheer determination. He beat his man to the net and tipped a centering pass from Miha Verlic past the OAR netminder to put Slovenia on the board.
Kovalchuk responded with a rocket from the circle to make ti 6-1 after two.
The third period belonged to Kirill Kaprizov. He finished off a wrap around and then hammered home a pass from Artyom Zub for his second and third goals of the game, giving him the first hat trick of the tournament.
OAR finished the game with 34 shots to Slovenia’s 15.
Highlights
🏒| De Russen benutten de powerplay optimaal: 1-0! #PyeongChang2018 #OS2018 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/SiKrbKwRlI
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) February 16, 2018
Ilya Kovalchuk: Still really good pic.twitter.com/4np6P18i8S
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 16, 2018
Russia scores again. Kirill Kaprizov makes it 5-0 Team OAR with 9:58 left in the 2nd period. #PyeongChang2018 #IceHockey
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) February 16, 2018
🏒 OI #PyeongChang2018
— Team Slovenia (@TeamSlovenia) February 16, 2018
SLO 1:5 RUS
🥅 Muršak (34') / (Mozjakin (19'), Kovalčuk (19'), Barabanov (26'), Kablukov (29'), Kaprizov (31')#TeamSlovenia #Olimpijskiponos pic.twitter.com/GI9hlv68lm
https://twitter.com/7olympics/status/964431974474526720
Next: Gary Bettman really screwed up this whole Olympics hockey thing
What’s Next
The Olympic Athletes from Russia face Team USA on Saturday at 7:10 a.m. ET in what will be a big test for the American squad. Slovenia should have an easier time when they square off with Slovakia in their final game of round robin play.