Russia’s ice hockey team needs to significantly improve discipline in order to concede fewer power-play goals, center Evgeni Malkin has told RIA Novosti.
Pittsburgh Penguins star Malkin scored a hat-trick as Russia thrashed Sweden 7-3 in the group stage of the world championships on Friday, with all three of Sweden's goals coming on power plays.
Russia picked up seven penalties in the match, including a five plus 20 minute penalty for defenseman Dmitry Kalinin, who hit Swedish forward Johan Franzen in the face with the handle of his stick.
Malkin praised Russia’s resistance in holding off the Swedes during the resulting five-minute power play.
“It is great we managed to hold off four men at the end, it was our best match at the tournament so far” he said Friday.
”But obviously we shouldn’t get so many penalties, three goals conceded in one game is way too much. The Swedes scored all of them on the power play, so in the dressing room we made it clear avoiding penalties is the most important thing.”
Malkin said he did not think the Swedes intentionally targeted him with tough tackling.
Russia coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov also criticized Russia’s discipline in the match.
“I had called for playing in a disciplined way, knowing otherwise they would immediately be punished,” Bilyaletdinov told RIA Novosti after the match.
“However, we were planning to play tough, because we saw that the Swedes were always boisterous and we couldn’t just surrender to them.”
Kalinin and fellow defenseman Alexei Yemelin are under investigation by tournament officials for their involvement in incidents in the match and may yet face further sanctions.
Russia tops Group B as the only unbeaten team with three games remaining and will play the Czech Republic on Sunday before taking on Italy a day later.
