Russia destroyed the Swedes at the World Cup in three minutes. And with Kazakhstan everyone can!

Rikard Grönborg brought the elite team to the World Cup. With 19 NHL players on the roster and status as reigning world champions, what more do you need to dominate every game?

Despite this, the Scandinavians managed to make history by conceding three goals in just three minutes. And how great it was that the Russian team sent them to the knockout.

True, at the current World Cup our historical achievement has already been surpassed. Nobody expected such speed from the Danes!

Russia forgot to take to the ice

The Russian national team approached the final match of the group stage of the 2019 World Cup as a favorite. Six victories in six games instilled confidence in the invincibility of our team. Yes, and the composition of Ilya Vorobyov was almost the most elite in the second decade of the 21st century: Ovechkin, Malkin, Kucherov, Kaprizov, Kuznetsov in attack, Orlov and Sergachev in defense, Vasilevsky at the last frontier. Just a fairy tale for the World Cup, where we are used to seeing the backbone of the KHL.

The Swedes, however, also looked menacing by name, but had a misfire at the start, losing to the Czech Republic 2:5. The opening stretch convinced the game to be hard-fought, with Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog opening the scoring eight minutes into the game. The Russians could not answer with anything intelligible and, in general, the impression was that our hockey players simply did not come to the last game in the group! The team was in this state throughout the first twenty minutes.

Photo: © RvS.Media/Monika Majer / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

What happened in the locker room?

However, Ilya Vorobyov found the right words during the break, and in the second period our team changed. In the first minute, Artem Anisimov equalized the score, and four minutes later Dadonov put Russia ahead. Later, Ovechkin and Malkin scored the first joint goal since the Sochi Games, extending our lead to three goals.

Swedish goalkeeper Markström may have wanted to escape from this hell, but Grönborg was in no hurry to release the legendary Lundqvist. As if he felt that the humiliation of his team had just begun, and therefore wanted to save his veteran.

Our youngest player, Kirill Kaprizov, continued to build on the team’s advantage by scoring his debut goal at the adult world championships. After just a couple of moments, Grigorenko and Malkin scored their goals against the Swedes. As a result, the Russians brought the score to a devastating one – from 3:1 to 6:1 – in just three minutes and eight seconds!

Photo: © RvS.Media/Monika Majer / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

As a result, the match was won with a score of 7:4, and our guys, having scored six goals in 20 minutes, repeated their achievement in 1994. True, then we scored against modest Englishmen, and in Bratislava we humiliated the top team of Sweden.

Record drop

At the current tournament in Finland, however, the achievement of the Russians has already surpassed the Danish team, having scored three goals for Kazakhstan in less than three minutes. Moreover, the team of Heinz Ellers scored at the very beginning of the meeting!

Aalborg striker Patrick Bjorkstrand scored the first goal in the third minute, and almost two minutes later Felix Schel doubled the Danes’ lead. Kazakhstan got a chance to win back one goal in the numerical majority, but made a mistake and conceded for the third time. Distinguished Joachim Blichfeld from the AHL (San Jose Barracuda). An interesting fact: all three goals were within 2 minutes 48 seconds – this is 20 seconds less than the Russian record three years ago.

Photo: © IMAGO/Antti Aimo-Koivisto / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

To the delight of the Danish fans, the Scandinavian team did not stop there and delivered six more goals to the opponent during the match. The game ended with a score of 9:1 – and already claims the title of the main defeat of the World Cup. The national team of Kazakhstan, alas, offered practically no resistance to the opponents – and the prestige goal in the penultimate minute hardly changed the overall impression of the team’s game. With such a defense, our geographical neighbors will definitely not go far in the tournament!

The Kazakhs started the tournament with a disaster, and their rivals with a record achievement. It is a pity that our hockey players will not be able to answer them at this world championship.