The Russian ice hockey team suffered an ignominious defeat to Finland on Wednesday afternoon, knocking them out of what had been considered one of the most important events for the hosts at the Sochi Games.
The Russians lost 3-1 to Finland in an upset that was greeted with amazement and depression among Russian fans. Ice hockey is by far the most popular sport in Russia of those represented at the Winter Olympics, and it is also one of the favoured sports of the President, Vladimir Putin, who plays himself with friends on a regular basis.
Ilya Kovalchuk opened the scoring early on, with the home crowd erupting in ecstasy, but the tension mounted and turned to despair as Finland scored three goals before the end of the second period. In a tightly contested third period, the Russians were unable to find a way past the disciplined Finnish defence.
At the end of the game, the Russian team skated off the ice to the sound of jeers, while the Finns celebrated jubilantly. They will now go on to play Sweden in the semi-final, with even the loser getting a shot at a medal in the bronze play-off.
Russia have struggled in the hockey tournament ever since losing an epic encounter with the US during the group stage. The match finished 2-2 after the Russians were controversially denied a winning goal in the closing stages, and the Americans then won in a penalty shootout.
Conspiracy theories abounded, given that one of the referees was a US national, and a programme on Russian state television claimed that the game had been rigged by US television interests so powerful they would not allow the Americans to lose.
After that defeat, the Russians ground out a 0-0 draw with unfancied Slovakia, which they won on penalties, before beating Norway.
Finland are no minnows, and took the bronze medal at the Vancouver Olympics. But the Russian team, filled with global talent from the NHL and Russia's KHL, was still expected to win on home ice. Despite the presence of superstars such as Kovalchuk, Alexander Ovechkin and others, the Russians never looked like clawing back the deficit in the final period.
Russia were looking to avenge a humiliating 7-3 defeat to Canada in the last Winter Olympics, but it was not to be.
In the run up to the Olympics, the Russian hockey federation released an open letter to the current team by a number of gold-medal winning veterans from the Soviet era, including Vladislav Tretiak, the current head of the federation who lit the Olympic flame before the Sochi games.
'The entire country will be looking at you,' it read. 'In our time, we did everything for the victory. We glorified the USSR, our people and our sports. Don't let Russia down, guys!'
Attention will now turn to making sure the overall medal count is satisfactory, and so far the Russians are having a much better performance at home than they did four years ago, when the country finished 11th in the medal table. The Russians currently sit fourth, with six gold medals, behind Germany, Norway and the US.
Earlier on Wednesday, the American-born naturalised Russian Vic Wild won the home nation a gold medal in the men's snowboard parallel giant slalom.
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