Finland beats Russia in the final...

Ostrava – Czech Republic: In the final group stage match between Russia and Finland, which was played in Ostrava, Finland won by 3-2 after a series of bullets.

Russia scored the first goal in the first period, but Finland levelled scores in the second period. Both teams again scored one each to take the match into the overtime. The 5 minute extra time turned out to be goalless, which pushed the game into the penalty shoot-out.

It was Russia’s first penalty shoot-out in this tournament, but the Finns had already experienced such struggle against Belarus. The first round of bullets proved to be even, but in the second round Russia’s Sergei Bobrovsky failed to stop the decisive puck.

Probably the only intriguing moment in the match was when Finland's Komarov was sent into the dressing room for the rest of the match for what the Swedish referees considered to be a kneeing. I was unable to see any serious foul in that episode, but the referees enjoyed their prerogative.

Both the teams had already made their way into the quarterfinals before today’s game. After the given result now the Finns will play their quarterfinal against the host Czech team in Prague, whereas Russia would take on Sweden in Ostrava.

This game also marked the end of the group stage. The final 8 include: USA – SUI; Canada – Belarus; Sweden – Russia; Finland – Czech Republic. The quarterfinal line-up has no surprises, except probably for Belarus, which had made it second straight time into the quarterfinals of the World Championship.

All the quarterfinal matches will be played on 14 May with matches 1 and 3 to be held in the Ostrava arena and matches 2 and 4 in the Prague arena.