Russia beats Finland 4-1, Czech Republic tops Sweden 5-4 in Euro Hockey Tour

Russia rallied to beat Finland 4-1, and the Czech Republic topped Olympic champion Sweden 5-4 Thursday in the opening games of the Channel One Cup.

Jukka Voutilainen put Finland ahead 1-0, beating goalie Alexander Eremenko from the top of the circle at 20:51. But former Nashville Predators defenseman Daniil Markov made it 1-1 on a slap shot from the blue line about a minute later.

Russia then went on to dominate as Oleg Saprykin, Ivan Nepryaev and Fedor Fedorov scored in the third period.

In Prague, the Czech Republic and defending Euro Hockey Tour champion Sweden were even at 1-1 after the first period. Tomas Rolinek and Dick Axelsson each scored.

Leos Cermak put the hosts ahead 2-1, and Jan Bulis and Stepan Hrebejk made it 4-1 before Niklas Persson scored for the visitors. Martin Prusek had a power play goal to make it 5-2 three seconds before the second interval.

Sweden narrowed the gap in the third period when Karl Fabricius and Niklas Nordgren scored.

The tournament is the second on the European Hockey Tour _ the unofficial European championship, which consists of tournaments in Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

The Channel One Cup is the successor to the Izvestia Cup. It has also been called the Baltika Cup and then the ROSNO Cup, and is named now after the state-run TV broadcaster.