Finland's smothering defensive play costs Russia their golden dream
Suomi's men's ice hockey team defeated the host Russian side in quarterfinal action on Wednesday, ending Russia's bid for a gold medal on home soil.
It was another impressive outing for a Finnish side that has now effectively shut down two of the most talented offensive teams in the tournament. Finland's stifling defensive play frustrated Team Canada in the preliminary round, and clamped down on Russia in the quarterfinal.
After jumping out to a two-goal lead early in the second period, Finland was extraordinarily effective at limiting quality scoring chances against, even while giving up a ton of shots from the outside in the game's latter 35 minutes.
While Finland's defensively play was stellar, Suomi still leaned heavily on Tuukka Rask to preserve their lead. The Boston Bruins netminder was unsurprisingly superb on Wednesday.
Rask's Russian counterpart Semyon Varlamov, on the other hand, was not nearly as good. Varlamov was pulled after allowing three goals on 15 shots, and only managed to stop three of the six difficult shots he faced. Varlamov was pulled early in the second period and replaced by Sergei Bobrovsky who made several spectacular stops over the balance of the contest.
Scoring Chances
A scoring chance is counted any time a team directs a shot cleanly on-net from within the area where the most goals go in - between and below the circles. You can get a handle on what the scoring chance area looks like here. Shots on goal and misses are counted, but blocked shots are not (unless the player who blocks the shot is “acting like a goaltender”). Generally speaking, we are more generous with the boundaries of the scoring chance area if there is dangerous puck movement immediately preceding the scoring chance, or if the scoring chance is screened. Tip shots are only counted if they're obvious sets.
Here are the individual scoring chance contributions from the Russian skaters:
| Russia | Taken | Created | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pavel Datsyuk | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Alex Radulov | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Evgeni Malkin | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Alexander Ovechkin | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Ilya Kovalchuk | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Alexei Emelin | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Artem Anisimov | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Andrei Markov | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Alex Semin | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Alexander Popov | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Slava Voynov | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Nikita Nikitin | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Alexei Tereshenko | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Although goaltending wasn't entirely the reason Russia lost to Finland on Wednesday, it absolutely played a huge part. Russia generated more quality looks than Finland did in the quarterfinal - both over the balance of the contest after Finland took the lead, and as Finland was in the process of building it.
Pavel Datsyuk and Alex Radulov led the Russian attack, while Evgeni Malkin had a number of quality opportunities late in the game. Russia's impressive offensive arsenal, however, was quiet on Wednesday (and was for much of the tournament).
Following the loss, Russian head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov didn't hesitate when singling out his top offensive players for their struggles during the Olympic tournament.
Russian coach singles out Alex Ovechkin. "I can not explain" how he didn't score more than one goal.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 19, 2014
Our numbers, however, would suggest that Alexander Ovechkin did well to generate opportunities all tournament long. So if Bilyaletdinov is looking for an explanation into Ovechkin's offensive struggles he may want to start with "poor shooting luck."
Here are the offensive contributions from Finland's skaters:
| Finland | Taken | Created | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mikael Granlund | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Olli Jokinen | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Teemu Selanne | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Kimmo Timonen | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Tuomo Ruutu | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jussi Jokinen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Antti Pihlstrom | 1 | 0 | |
| Sami Vatanen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Juhamatti Aaltonen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mikael Granlund managed two points, setting up Teemu Selanne's game winner and banging home a huge insurance marker on an early second period power play. The young Minnesota Wild forward was easily Finland's best forward in the quarterfinal.
Here are the team totals for both teams:
| Scoring Chances (EV) | 1st Period | 2nd Period | 3rd Period | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | 6 (4) | 6 (3) | 3 (2) | 14 (9) |
| Finland | 6 (4) | 3 (2) | 3 (3) | 12 (9) |
So Russia outshot and out-chanced Finland in the quarterfinal. While that would suggest that Varlamov's play proved costly - and it mots certainly was - one also would have expected Russia to generate significantly more scoring chances than Finland, considering they spent the majority of an elimination game chasing a two-goal deficit.
That Russia struggled to generate quality opportunities to the extent that they did is a credit to the suffocating Finnish defensive system.
Can Sweden fare better than Canada and Russia when they try to penetrate Finland's collapsing defensive shell in the semifinal?