Russia's Andrey Markov celebrates with the trophy after his team's overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game at the 2008 World Hockey Championships in Quebec City, May 18, 2008.
Photo: Reuters
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Russian Hockey Team Tops
The Russian national hockey team has won the world championship for the second time in its history, beating Canada 5:4 in overtime. The winning goal was hit by Ilya Kovalchuk in the 63rd minute. The Russian team made its first goal in the 2nd minute, through its Washington connection, with Sergey Fedorov, Alexander Ovechkin, and Alexander Semin. The Canadians were fast to respond, however, and Brent Burns shot one past Russian goalie Evgeny Nabokov in the 4th minute.
The Canadians kept the pressure on the Russians, with the puck bouncing off the post once. The Canadians’ Chris Kunitz made the second score in the 10th minute, and Burns hit another in the 15th minute. The Russian received 10 minutes of penalty in the first 20 minutes, when the Canadians were already shorthanded. The Russian team made a power play in the second period and Semin made a goal to bring the score to 3:2 (in Canada’s favor) in the 22nd minute. In the 30th minute (the middle of the second period), Dany Heatley made another goal for Canada. Five minutes, 14 seconds before the end of the third period, the score was tied, however, when Kovalchuk, who had sat out the semifinal with a disqualification, struck his first goal in the final match. There were no more goals in the third period, and the game went into overtime, when Kovalchuk made the winning goal.
The Russian national hockey team first won the world championship against Germany in 1993. The Soviet national team won 22 world championships. The Canadian team would have won its 25th title, had it won. No team has won a championship game played at home since 1986.
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