Russia wins gold

It seemed like Canada would have no problem winning the gold medal on home soil.  It was the first time the World Championships were played on Canadian soil and the home team had not lost a game before playing Russia for the Gold Medal.  After two periods it looked like all the predictions would be correct, the home team led 5-3 and only had to hold on for 20 minutes.  The Russian team had other ideas,Alexei Tereschenko and Ilya Kovalchuk  scored six minutes apart to tie the game with just over five minutes remaining in regulation.  Ilya Kovalchuk sealed the deal for the Russians, scoring his second goal of the game two minutes and 42 seconds into overtime and the Russians went home with the gold.

As for the Sabres that played in the game, they were pretty much all non-existent.  Max Afinogenov and Dmitri Kalinin added a gold medal to their collection of hockey awards but neither was counted on in this game.  Dmitri Kalinin played just over 12 minutes and only eight seconds in overtime while Afinogenov did not see the ice in overtime and played only 9:20 in the entire game.  Afinogenov had been scoring goals for the Russian team but in todays game they did not count on him.  Derek Roy earned a silver medal playing for Canada in losing effort.  It was a good tournament for Derek Roy but today he had only an assist on a goal scored by Brent Burns that tied the game at one in the first period.