Russia dominates Finland to advance to gold medal game at Worlds

Posted: Fri May 16 4:00 PM

Quebec City, QC (Sports Network) - Evgeni Nabokov stonewalled Finland, stopping 23 shots as Russia rolled to a 4-0 win in a semifinal at the 2008 World Hockey Championship.

The Russians, in search of their first gold medal since 1993, will await the winner of the Canada/Sweden matchup in the other semifinal. They will get a boost in the return of Atlanta Thrashers forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who served a one-game suspension for a charging major and game misconduct he received in Russia's quarterfinal win over Switzerland.

Sergei Fedorov, Danis Zaripov, Alexei Morozov, and Maxim Sushinsky scored for Russia. Sergei Zinoviev added two assists for the Russians, who last reached the gold medal game in 2002, when they dropped a 4-3 decision to Slovakia. The Russians have won their last two games by a combined tally of 10-0, after a 6-0 win over Switzerland.

The line of Washington Capitals teammates -- Fedorov, Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin -- produced the first score on a three-on-one rush, with Fedorov flipping the puck past Nicklas Backstrom at 13:41 of the first period.

Another tic-tac-toe passing play produced the second goal, with Zaripov one- timing the disc in from the bottom of the right circle for a 2-0 lead at 3:44 of the second period.

Morozov's wrister from the right faceoff circle boosted Russia's lead to 3-0 with only 7:45 left, all-but-ending Finland's hope of returning to the gold medal game. The Finns, who will have a chance at the bronze medal against the loser of the other semifinal, lost last year to Canada.

Sushinsky added an empty-netter with 2:04 left to cap the scoring.