Russian ice hockey champions feted in Moscow

A huge crowd of cheering ice hockey fans packed the central streets of Moscow on Tuesday to celebrate Russia's world championship win over Finland. Tens of thousands of supporters turned out to hail Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeni Malkin, Sergei Bobrovski and the rest of the title-winning squad as they made their way from Pushkinskaya square to near the ancient Kremlin's wall in three open-topped busses. The team then met Russian president Vladimir Putin, who awarded the players and coaches Oleg Znarok and Harijs Vitolins with the Order of Honour at a special ceremony in the president's residence at Kremlin. General manager Andrei Safromov and team doctor Valery Konov were presented with the Order of Friendship. Earlier, Muscovites cheered the team with chants of: "We are the champions!" and "Ros-si-ya!" "We dedicate this victory to the entire country," Pittsburgh Penguins sharpshooter Malkin, who was claiming his second world championship's gold medal in Minsk on Sunday, said. "This win is for all our people, for all of our supporters. We battled tough for our country, our fans, our manager, who was handed an unfair ban for the final. Luckily we won and we're all happy now!" Russia were forced to play the final without their manager Znarok, who had been handed a one-match ban for making a throat-slashing gesture toward Swedish assistant coach Rikard Gronborg following their verbal altercation at the end of Saturday's semi-final. Despite his absence Russia beat Finland 5-2 for their fifth world title in the post-Soviet era. Source: AFP