page_title: Russia men's national ice hockey team
section_title: The Znarok years
hierarchical_section_title: Russia men's national ice hockey team / History / The Russian resurgence / The Znarok years
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Встреча Президента России Владимира Путина с российскими спортсменами – участниками XXIII Олимпийских зимних игр 2018 года в Пхёнчхане.
context_page_description: The Russian men's national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey team of Russia, overseen by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. As of 2020, they are rated second in the IIHF World Ranking. The team has been competing internationally since 1992, and is recognized by the IIHF as the successor to the Soviet Union team and CIS team. The Russian team is a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The European nations of the Big Six participate in the Euro Hockey Tour, which Russia won seven times since 2005. Since April 2018, the head coach is Ilya Vorobiev, taking over for the second half of the 2017–18 Euro Hockey Tour.
  Since the establishment of the team, Russia has participated in every IIHF World Championships tournament and every Olympic ice hockey tournament, winning five world championships and one Olympic gold.
context_section_description: Znarok then led the Russians to the gold medal in the 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship after defeating Finland 5–2 in the final, with a perfect record. The 2014 tournament result set the most perfect records in the IIHF World Championships. For this accomplishment, the Russian team was honored in the Kremlin.
  In each subsequent tournament, Russia earned a medal, including the silver medal in 2015, and the bronze medals in 2016 and 2017. The team also reached the semifinals of the World Cup, losing to Canada, the eventual winner.
  In 2018, the Russian Olympic Committee was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee for doping, but the Russian players were cleared to participate by the IOC under the Olympic flag as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) using professional Russian hockey players with no previous drug violations and a consistent history of drug testing. Like the rest of the Olympic hockey teams in 2018, the Russian team could not use NHL players due to the league's prohibiting player participation in the Olympics. As a result, the team relied on players from the KHL (15 from a reigning champion, SKA Saint Petersburg, 8 from HC CSKA Moscow and 2 from Metallurg Magnitogorsk).
  After a loss in their first game to Slovakia, the OAR team defeated Slovenia and the United States, qualifying for the quarterfinals. The team then defeated Norway and the Czech Republic to reach the finals. The team won the gold medal after a 4–3 overtime victory over the German team in the final. Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk each won their first gold in their fifth Olympic appearance and together with Slava Voynov, were the only players with prior Olympic experience on the team. In its post-Olympics World Ranking, the IIHF considered the OAR team as the Russian team in its rankings. The IIHF considers this victory to be Russia's second gold medal in the Olympics, as they also attributed the 1992 Unified Team gold medal to Russia, however, the IOC does not attribute either of these results to Russia.
  After the Olympics, Znarok became a consultant for the Russian National Team. He retired as Russia's most decorated modern head coach, with a World Championship, an Olympic gold medal, and a Euro Hockey Tour victory.
caption: Russian players met with President Vladimir Putin on 31 January 2018, prior to their departure to Korea
exif: {}