There was also dismay at the other end of the ice, where Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Radulov delivered an under-powered performance which yielded just two goals and two assists between them. The search for a center to lead their line continues; the chances of a KHL-based troika taking the ice in February seem to have receded and Bilyaletdinov admitted that there are now fewer serious candidates for a call-up on Jan. 7. The highlight of a forgettable weekend for Russia may well be the news that goalie Semyon Varlamov will not face criminal charges in Denver following allegations made by his girlfriend.

The other results saw Finland pick up wins against Russia and Sweden to stretch its lead in the overall rankings to an impregnable 10 points. The Finns, who expect to name a handful of players from this roster in their Olympic party, were able to call on a player straight from the NHL. Youngster Rasmus Ristolainen made 19 appearances on defence for Buffalo before being released to SM-Liga outfit TPS on Dec. 19 and making his way home via Sochi. Sweden, without the extensive regiment of NHL talent expected at the Olympics, finished bottom of the table, gleaning a solitary point from a shoot-out loss against the Czechs.

Arosa Challenge

Switzerland iced a strong roster in its home tournament – but despite calling on every available player from the World Championship silver medal-winning squad it lost out in a shoot-out against Belarus.

Sergei Demagin finished as the top scorer for the tournament, netting twice against Slovakia before getting the shoot-out winner following a 2-2 tie with the Swiss.

Earlier the hosts suffered a further blow when goalie Martin Gerber was forced out of the opening game in the ninth minute. Although the team shrugged off that setback to beat Norway 4-2 on the night, Gerber now faces a month on the sidelines. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, Switzerland’s leading NHL forward Damien Brunner will also be out of action for a month after suffering a knee injury while playing for New Jersey Devils on the same day.

Slovakia took the bronze thanks to a 4-2 win over Norway as those two nations concluded their Olympic preparations in the Alps.

Exhibition games

Sochi wasn’t the only city to host top-level international hockey for the first time – France broke out of its hockey heartlands to a new rink in the southern city of Marseille. A record crowd of 4,912 fans turned out for the game, and after a nervous start Les Bleus put up a creditable display even though Yorrick Teille’s goal could not prevent a 1-2 reverse against Russia B. The following night the teams met again in Gap, and for forty minutes the hosts had the Russians in trouble, leading 2-1 at the second interval. But Russia struck back to win 6-3, with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl youngster Danil Apalkov leading the scoring.

Germany faced Latvia in two games. The first went to the Baltic team in a shoot-out after Andris Dzerins snatched a last-minute goal to tie it up at 3-3. Mikelis Redlihs won it. The following day, though, Germany got its revenge with a 4-0 success. After a scoreless first session, David Wolf broke the deadlock on 22 minutes and finished the night with 2+1=3. Goalie Felix Brückmann had 34 saves.