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RUSSIA FINISHES SEVENTH WITH WIN OVER GERMANY
Carie Willson

Was this the noisiest game for seventh place ever in international hockey history? If not, it was close. More than 10,700 fans at the MTS Centre, mostly kids from local Manitoba schools, cheered and screamed throughout as Russia beat Germany 4-1 in the concluding game of the 2007 IIHF World Women’s Championship for both teams on Monday.

For the Russians, the seventh-place finish was one place better than what they achieved at the 2005 Worlds, but one worse than in the 2006 Olympics. Eighth place marked a definite come-down for Germany, which came fifth in both 2005 and 2006.

Ekaterina Smolentseva, Svetlana Trefilova, Tatiana Burina, and Iya Gavrilova had the goals for Russia. Denise Soesilo replied for Germany.

Russia outshot Germany 25-24, with Irina Gachennikova suiting up in goal for Russia and Viona Harrer for Germany.

At 3:51, Russia opened the scoring when Maria Barykina threw the puck to the front of the net, where it deflected off a German defenceman and then Harrer into the net. The goal was credited to Ekaterina Smolentseva.

Russia went up 2-0 on its fifth shot on net at 7:13. Oxana Tretiyakova circled behind the net before passing the puck out front to Svetlana Trefilova, who fought off a German defender and scored her first goal of the tournament.

At 8:47, the Germans responded with some offensive spark of their own when Denise Soesilo put the puck in front of the Russian net and it deflected in off Carina Spuhler to cut the deficit to 2-1. Russia outshot Germany 10-4 in the opening period and carried the momentum.

The teams battled evenly through a scoreless second period. Only at 9:24 of the third did Russia extend its lead to 3-1, when forward Tatiana Burina burst into the clear and faked a slapshot before deking Harrer and whipping the puck in off the German goalie’s right post.

With just over a minute left in the game, the Germans thought they had drawn within one goal. After Nikola Holmes broke in alone and shot the puck over the net, she batted the puck out of mid-air with her glove, and it wound up on the stick of Sarah Seiler, who banged it in. But the goal was waved off due to the hand pass.

Iya Gavrilova capped off the scoring for Russia with an empty-netter with 48 seconds left.

Gavrilova was Russia’s Player of the Game, and Soesilo was named for Germany.

Germany’s three top players of the tournament were also named: Christina Fellner, Susanne Fellner, and Susann Goetz. For Russia, it was Tatiana Burina, Svetlana Trefilova, and Olga Permyakova.

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