Alexander Khovanov kissed the coat of arms of Russia in the semifinals with the Swedish national team at the 2020 World Youth Hockey Championship
“Kiss the coat of arms in front of our eyes? Typical Russia “. A match that hurts to remember for the Swedes
![A match that hurts to remember for the Swedes A match that hurts to remember for the Swedes](https://img.championat.com/s/735x490/news/big/l/w/match-kotoryj-bolno-vspominat-shvedam_16405003851148953827.jpg)
Alexander Khovanov’s gesture at the MFM-2020 unexpectedly angered the entire Swedish bench.
Already the coming night, the Russian national ice hockey team will begin its journey at the World Youth Championship – 2022, which will be held in two Canadian cities, Edmonton and Red Deer. The first rival of Sergei Zubov’s charges, preparing to hold their debut official match at the helm of the national team, will be the Swedish national team, which for the second time in a row fell to the Russians at the group stage. These meetings traditionally turn out to be bright and go down in history. We have recently recalled the events of the 2013 and 2021 championship matches, but today we will turn to the game that took place on January 4, 2020.
The tournament in the Czech Republic was the last for Valery Bragin as the head coach of the Russian youth team. Many fans probably still remember with pain the final of missed opportunities and poor discipline with the Canadians, but the semi-final is also quite dramatic. It is still painful for the Swedes to remember him.
The start turned out to be overwhelming for the Russians – already at the 16th second, after a successful throw-in for Tre Krunur in the attacking zone, Rasmus Sandin charged from the blue line into the upper corner, opening the scoring. However, the joy of the Swedish hockey players was short-lived – in less than two minutes, Ivan Morozov converted the majority and restored the balance.
Soon, the Russian national team got another opportunity to play too much – one of the key players of the Scandinavians, Nils Höglander, received a penalty match for a blow to the head and left his team in the minority for a full five minutes. The Russians had a little more minutes to come out ahead – Alexander Khovanov won on finishing after Nikita Aleksandrov’s throw.
The video can be viewed in the official “twitter»IIHF.
However, after the match of our striker in the shadow of his celebration, it caused a great resonance among the hockey community. The fact is that Alexander, the violently marked abandoned puck, drove past the Swedish bench and kissed the Russian coat of arms, which is on the playing jersey. “Is that all?” – you ask. And that’s all. This turned out to be enough to cause a storm of emotions in Tre Krunur, who saw disrespect in Khovanov’s actions.
The Swedes forward Albin Eriksson was most indignant: “Typical Russia. They get angry when the Canadian player takes off his helmet during the anthem, but they think it’s okay to ride in front of us kissing the coat of arms, ”Ericsson said after the match. “Hockey is emotions, but it was a little disrespectful,” – supported his other forward of the Swedish youth team Samuel Fagemo.
Khovanov himself said that he did not invest anything against the rival in the celebration: “No, no, in no case! I didn’t want to laugh at the Swedes, I’m just a very emotional player and I didn’t know where to go. I hope they don’t think I decided to laugh at them like that. ”
“Typical Russia”. Swedes in anger – Khovanov kissed the coat of arms in front of their bench
One way or another, the rivals negatively perceived the celebration of Alexander, and the resulting anger, perhaps, helped them return to the game, which by the middle of the starting period was completely held back by the Russians. Indeed, at the beginning of the 13th minute, Yegor Sokolov increased the advantage of Valery Bragin’s wards to two goals, taking advantage of the monstrous import of the Swedish goalkeeper Hugo Alnefelt.
Tre Krunur quickly closed the gap, leveled the score in the second period, at the beginning of the third period. Then the coaching staff decided to change the goalkeeper – instead of Yaroslav Askarov, Amir Miftakhov appeared at the last line. This move paid off – Miftakhov did his job perfectly, neutralizing all the shots of the Swedes in the remaining time.
But that was only half the battle – the situation on the scoreboard was still in favor of the Swedish national team, and the puck stubbornly did not want to go into the goal of Alnefelt, who became much more vigilant after Sokolov’s goal. But it was Yegor who was the player who came to the rescue of the Russian national team in a difficult situation, having issued a double and transferred the game into extra time.
And in overtime, Ivan Morozov did everything – having received the puck from Vasily Podkolzin on his own blue line, he burst into the Swedish zone at speed, drove away from Rasmus Sandin, who scored four points in the match, and irresistibly threw past Alnefelt.
The characteristic sound of the barbell, even earlier than the siren did, marked the first time the Russians reached the final since 2016 and gave our fans hope for the long-awaited gold. A hope that shattered in just seven minutes.