Feisty Finland have too much firepower for Russia

 NINA Tikkinen's fine double helped Finland's women's ice hockey team to a comfortable opening 5-1 victory over Russia in the first ever Olympic encounter between these two sides.

FESITY FINNS: After a nervous start, Finland had far too much firepower for Russia and got their Olympic campaign off the ground with a 5-1 victory (Getty Images)

Tikkinen bagged twice in the third period to settle the Finnish nerves after Russia's Aleksandra Vafina had opened the scoring on six minutes, before Saija Sirvio, Marjo Voutilainen, Venla Hovi replied for Finland.

Finland were the clear favourites before the match, but some early jitters were confirmed when Vafina capitalised on a goalmouth scramble to fire Russia ahead after three early penalties in their favour.

However, that shook Finland to life and they were back on level terms within three minutes when Sirvio found the net.

The more experienced Finns turned it up a notch in the second period and they seized the advantage on 23 minutes as Voutilainen's shot dribbled through the legs of Russian goaltender Irina Gashennikova.

Finland then exerted their physical authority, taking three consecutive body checking penalties while punishing and seemingly intimidating the Russians players.

And it proved to be an effective strategy as Russia were on their heels despite the manpower advantage.

Finand then got the two-goal cushion they so desired when Hovi's deft finish crept its way in on 40 minutes.

The third period belonged to Finland and Tikkinen grabbed the goal of the match, superbly finishing off Saara Tuominen's fine pass.

That effectively ended any hopes of a Russian comeback and Tikkinen grabbed her second of the match late on to put the icing on the cake.

 Russian forward Ekaterina Smolentseva hit out at her team-mates following the defeat - but also blamed the conditions.

"We didn't have enough self-confidence," she fumed. 

"Every time they had an opportunity, they took advantage of it."

"However, we didn't have the opportunity to practise on this ice. The practice rink and this one are different. The practise rink is lighter and this one is too soft."

 

AS IT HAPPENS: Day three of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver