Russia will skate for fifth place against Switzerland on Monday after topping Slovakia 4-2 in the classification round at UBC Thunderbird Arena. For Slovakia, it was another case of ‘close but no cigar’ as the 17th-ranked nation once against couldn’t get over the hump for their first Olympic victory.

Like many of the teams that have faced Slovakia, Russia struggled to find the key to beating Slovak goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova, who was out-shot more than three-to-one, but stymied the Russian offence despite the heavy workload.

 Russia held a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Tatiana Sotnikova and Irina Gavrilova. It was the first goal of the Olympics for both forwards. After the quick deficit, Tomcikova and her teammates regrouped and worked their way back into the game with a power-play goal 3:24 into the second period.

 It took many more chances, but Russia eventually restored its two-goal lead midway through the game with a shorthanded goal that caught the Slovaks flatfooted. Slovakia once again cut the Russia lead to one, when Jana Kapustova struck 31 seconds into the third period.

 Russia finally put the final nail in the coffin with just over nine minutes left in regulation when Gavrilova put in her second power-play goal for the 4-2 lead and win.

Besides their games against the North American nations, both Russia and Slovakia have had relatively close results against the other teams in the tournament. Despite being big underdogs, both only lost by four goals in the preliminary round against their Scandinavian counterparts. The closer scores in those games, and in today’s placement game, are a silver lining that shows that this women’s tournament can be competitive despite the lopsided results against the North American nations.

For the four bottom women’s teams, the Olympic tournament will come to an end on Monday when Russia will take on Switzerland for fifth place and Slovakia faces China for seventh place.  

Russia - Slovakia 4:2 (2:0, 1:1, 1:1)

Goals:

1 period

1:0 Т. Sotnikova (Е. Lebedeva) 7.34
2:0 I. Gavrilova (М. Sergina, Е. Smolentseva) 18.16, PP1

2 period

2:1 P. Pravlikova (М. Velickova) 23.24, PP1
3:1 S. Terentieva (А. Kapustina, I. Dyubanok) 33.45, SH1

3 period

3:2 J. Kapustova (М. Velickova) 40.31
4:2 I. Gavrilova 50.26, PP1

Goalkeepers: I. Gashennikova - Z. Tomcikova
Penalties: 8 - 8 min
Shots: 43 - 19

John Sanful, IIHF.com; The Ice-hockey Federation of Russia