Russian combined team in world hockey semi-finals

The combined team of Germany suffered a sensational defeat 1-2 from the Swedes on Monday, which brought the Russian combined juniors' team to the world hockey championship semi-finals. This became possible irrespective of the outcome of the last match in the group. On Tuesday, the Russian team will play a match with the Swedes, however, this game will have any tournament importance only for the Scandinavians. Following yesterday's defeat, they have 2 points and hold the forth position in the group. To continue their efforts to obtain medals, they need a victory only. The Russian combined team, which, in succession, defeated Czechia (8-3), Germany (8-3) and Norway (10-1), with 6 points after 3 matches, has become quite out of reach. The group's winners go straight to the semi finals, while their rivals will be determined by the matches of the teams that hold 2nd and 3rd positions in the group. In Group B, in which the Russians play, apart from the Swedes, the combined team of Czechia (4 points) and Germany (3 points) have their claim for the two positions. In group A, before the final matches, participation in the semi finals has been secured by the Finns, hosts of the championship, who, like the Russians, have become winners in all the three opening matches. The United States and Switzerland, with their 4 points each, will also continue their performance. The main failure of the championship was the Ukrainian team, which was defeated by all its rivals in the group, with the total score 3 to 34. The semi finals, with participation of the Russian combined team, will be played on April 20 in Helsinki. Following the opening matches, the Russian juniors are also in the lead by the individual player's performance. Muscovite Ilya Kovalchuk and Igor Gigorenko from Togliatti are the leaders, with 7 points, among strikers, while Kirill Koltsov from Omsk, with his 7 points, is the best player in terms of usefulness rate.

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