SKA St Petersburg's star ensemble has won the 84th Spengler Cup with a score of 4:3. Just like in their previous games, the Russian tournament favorites have lived up to the high expectations in the final. The two top forwards Yashin and Afinogenov decided the match in the second period with two goals within four minutes.

The Kontinental Hockey League is Europe's leading league. That's something the Russians have also proven in Davos several times already. This year's victory is the third time in a row that a KHL team has won the tournament in Davos. Eleven-time tournament winner Team Canada just didn't have enough energy left for their fifth game in as many days and wasn't able to stop the Russians.

St. Petersburg: Unbeaten Winners

Kloten defender Micki DuPont was responsible for the momentary equalizer (1:1) when he scored his third goal of the tournament for Coach Mark Messier's team in the 27th minute. But the Canadians weren't able to take the lead. Instead, Aleksey Yashin scored the 2:1 lead goal for his unbeaten team from Eastern Europe when two

Canadians were in the penalty box.

A few minutes later, former world champion Maxim Afinogenov and magnificent Swedish defender Fransson passed brilliantly, and Afinogenov put the score to 3:1. That was the deciding moment in this game between the world's two best hockey nations, which between them have 49 World Championship titles under their belts. McLean's 2:3 (59.) came too late, and 19 seconds before the final whistle, when Team Canada had pulled their goalkeeper, Sushinsky scored with an empty netter.

SKA St Petersburg - Team Canada 4:3 (1:0, 2:1, 1:2)

Vaillant Arena. - 6,432 spectators (sold out). - Referees Baluska (Slk)/Hebert (Ka), Küng/Losier (Ka).

Goals: 11. Sushinsky (Martensson) 1:0. 27. DuPont (Pittis) 1:1. 31. Yashin (Sushinsky, Weinhandl/penalties Down, Popovic) 2:1. 35. Afinogenov (Fransson) 3:1. 59. (58:38) McLean (Iggulden, Brendan Bell) 3:2. 59. (58:57) Sushinsky 4:2 (into the empty net). 60. (59:58) Holden 4:3.

Penalties: 7 x 2 minutes against SKA St Petersburg, 6 x 2 minutes against Team Canada.

SKA St Petersburg: Stepanek; Fransson, Worobjew; Grebeschkow, Denissow; Semenow, Wischnewski; Suschinski, Martensson, Jaschin; Weinhandl, Cajanek, But; Afinogenow, Brylin, Artjuchin; Schitikow, Krjukow, Rybin.

Team Canada: Deslauriers; Roche, Brendan Bell; DuPont, Popovic; Cory Murphy, Kwiatkowski; Curtis Murphy, Westcott; Vigier, Pittis, Landry; Kariya, Holden, Down; Lehoux, Metropolit, McLean; Iggulden, Brown, Pelletier.
Notes: Team Canada without Mark Bell, Aubint (injured). 52. goal post Cajanek. 59. timeout Team Canada. Team Canada without goalie from 58:35 to 58:38 and from 58:52 to 58:57.

Allstar-Team. Keeper: Jeff Deslauriers (Team Canada). - Right Defender: Travis Roche (Team Canada). - Left Defender: Goran Bezina (Genève-Servette). - Right Wing: Dan Fritsche (Genève-Servette). - Center: Reto von Arx (Davos). - Left Wing: Alexej Jaschin (SKA St. Petersburg).

Top scorers: 1. Maxim Sushinsky (St. Petersburg) 7 (2 Goals/5 Assists). 2. Alexej Jaschin (St. Petersburg) und Tony Martensson (St. Petersburg), je 6 (3/3). 4. Micki DuPont (Team Canada) 5 (3/2). 5. Richard Park (Genève-Servette) 5 (2/3). (Si)