By Steve Keating
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) men’s ice hockey team has scored just three goals in two games, but with Ivan Fedotov doing his impersonation of the Great Wall in net the reigning gold medallists have made a perfect start to their title defence at the Beijing Winter Games.
After a tight 1-0 win over Switzerland in their opener Fedotov again came to the ROC rescue on Friday with a shutout performance in a 2-0 victory over Olympic debutant Denmark.
While the ROC attack has had difficulty getting into gear Fedotov has been firing on all cylinders, stopping all 16 shots in the win over Denmark after turning aside all 33 shots he faced against Switzerland.
“I am not happy with how we play offensively,” said ROC coach Alexei Zhamnov. “We are not controlling the puck and we do not have traffic in front of the net.
“There is too much playing around and that is maybe why we do not score many goals.”
The game’s first goal came midway through the second period with Pavel Karnaukhov knocking in his own rebound off the post past Frederik Dichow’s outstretched glove.
That would be all the scoring until Kirill Semyonov put the puck into an empty net after Denmark pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker.
“It was tight and we did not have the puck a ton,” said Denmark captain Peter Regin. “Russia are a better team than us and that is just the facts.
“We kept it tight and close for a long time and had some chances to tie it at the end.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating; editing by Richard Pullin)
