BEIJING, February 16. /TASS/. The Russian ice hockey players proceeded to the semifinals of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China after defeating on Wednesday Team Denmark 3-1 in their quarterfinals match.

The score was opened in the middle of the 1st period by ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) team’s captain Vadim Shipachyov. The Danes answered in the next period with a goal delivered by central forward Frans Nielsen. However, Russian defender Nikita Nesterov answered several minutes later with a power shot almost from the blue line to bring his team the lead of 2-1.

With less than five minutes remaining in the closing period ROC Team’s Vyacheslav Voinov upped his team’s advantage over the Danes to 3-1 netting a puck with a long-distance shot. The score remained unchanged until the final buzzer.

Nielsen said after the match that the Danish team did their utmost in their quarterfinal Olympics match, which was inaugural for them.

"Hopefully we just brought a lot more hockey fans back in Denmark, opened their eyes up to this game," the IIHF (the International Ice Hockey Federation) official website quoted Nielsen as saying. "We played five games. We gave it all we had."

"We worked hard every night for 60 minutes. We for sure laid it all out there," Nielsen said. "When we get home, there’s no regret from us."

Danish goaltender Sebastian Dahm, who chalked up 37 saves in today’s match, said: "We knew that if we could take this game to overtime anything could happen and it would be really tough mentally for the Russians to face elimination."

"We were really close but in the end it was tough to accept the loss," the Danish goaltender added.

Team ROC’s Arseny Gritsyuk told IIHF it was not an easy game to play today against Denmark if compared to ROC’s previous 2-0 win Danes at group stage.

"I wouldn’t say that this was easier than the group stage," Gritsyuk said. "The Danes have a good team. In the third period they forced the pace. We expected a tight game in [the neutral zone]. We prepared for that. We managed to get through it and play in their zone, and that led to goals."

Russian defender Nesterov, who tied the score in the middle period, said speaking about the semifinal match perspectives that his squad needs to play better.

"We need to play better the next game," the IIHF cited Nesterov as saying. "We need to take the puck to the net, do more screening, play more comfortable with the puck."

Team ROC will be playing in the semifinal match on February 18 and its opponent and the time of the match would be announced after the rest of the quarterfinal matches are played today. The semifinals opponent for the Russian ice hockey players would be either from Sweden or from their long-standing rivals Canada. Both Sweden and Canada are to face each other in a quarterfinals match later in the day.

At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, the Russian national ice hockey team played under the status of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) and eventually won the Olympic gold defeating Germany 4-3 in sudden death overtime in the final match.

The ice hockey competition at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing runs between February 9 and 20. The team of Russian ice hockey players was seeded in Group B along with the squads from Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Denmark.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are being held between February 4 and 20. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).

Russian athletes at Beijing-2022

Due to international sanctions against Russian sports, athletes from Russia are competing in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing under the flag and logo of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem.

The national anthem of Russia is also under sanctions at the Olympics in China. The First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky was selected to be played at awarding ceremonies for Russian Olympians in Beijing.