Russia wins the quarter final over Belarus after an exciting game where the outcome was far from certain.

Russia - Belarus 4-3 (0-0, 3-3, 1-0)
6 May 2009, Postfinance Arena, Berne, Att: 8,337
0-1 22:39 Konstantin Koltsov 1 (Grabovski, Antonenko) PP1
1-1 25:18 Vitali Proshkin 2 (Kovalchuk, Tereschenko)
1-2 33:52 Oleg Antonenko 3 (Grabovski, Kaliuzhny)
2-2 36:39 Vitali Atyushov 2 (Radulov, Saprykin)
3-2 37:02 Alexander Frolov 2 (Radulov)
3-3 39:22 Ruslan Salei 2 (Antonenko, Grabovski) PP2
4-3 47:22 Ilya Kovalchuk 4 (Morozov)
RUS 8x2, BLR 5x2, SOG 32:22 (15:6, 11:10, 6:6)
Goaltender split: Bryzgalov (13/16 - 40:00), Eremenko (6/6 - 20:00)

RUS: Ilya Bryzgalov (40:00 Alexander Eremenko); Ilya Nikulin (2), Alexei Tereschenko, Vitali Proshkin, Ilya Kovalchuk (2), Alexei Morozov - Vitali Vishnevsky, Nikolai Zherdev, Alexander Frolov, Sergei Zinoviev, Oleg Tverdovsky (2) - Dmitri Kalinin (2), Konstantin Gorovikov (2), Vitali Atyushov, Alexander Radulov (2), Oleg Saprykin - Sergei Mozyakin (2), Alexander Perezhogin, Anton Kuryanov (2), Kontantin Korneyev, Denis Grebeshkov.
BLR: Andrei Mezin; Alexander Riadinski, Andrei Stas, Ruslan Salei (2), Konstantin Koltsov, Sergei Demagin (2), Vladimir Denisov, ALexei Ugarov (2), Alexei Kaliuzhny, Mikhail Grabovski, Dmitri Korobov - Ivan Usenko, Andrei Mikhalev, Mikhail Stefanovich, Viktor Kostiuchenok (2), Yaroslav Chupris - Oleg Antonenko, Alexander Kulakov, Evgeni Kovyrshin (2), Andrei Bashko, Andrei Antonov.
Refs: Jyri Petteri Ronn (FIN) / Derek Zalaski (CAN)
Linesmen: Anton Semionov (EST) / Felix Winnekens (GER)

Russia had to fight hard, but at the end they earned their spot in the semifinals. Perhaps expecting to waltz through, the reigning champions struggled a bit, but a third period a goal by usual suspect Ilya Kovalchuk was not countered by a tired Belarus team, who tried very hard throughout the whole match, but playing their top line almost every other shift resulted in them lacking any gas to attempt anything.

After a scoreless first period, in which Russia outshot their opponents 15-6, Russia found themselves down by a goal after a scramble powerplay goal by Belarus' captain Konstantin Koltsov. Just three minutes later an accurate, beautiful shot by Ufa's Vitaly Proshkin made it 1-1 after a nice set up by Kovalchuk. Between the 33rd and the 37th minute the match saw three more goals. At first veteran Oleg Antonenko overcame Oleg Tverdovsky to put the puck past Ilya Bryzgalov, then a couple of minutes later Vitali Atyushov tied it once again with a good wrist shot from the right circle. At the thirty-seventh minute Alexander Frolov put Russia ahead by one with a scramble touch just in front of Andrei Mezin. A couple of quick penalty calls in the period's last minute gave Belarus a huge 5-on-3 chance and Ruslan Salei with a rocket made it 3-3 just forty seconds prior to second intermission.

To start the 3rd period, Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov swapped Bryzgalov with Alexander Eremenko, who was able to shut the door the rest of the way. Russia had better conditioning and thus a quick counterattack by Ilya Kovalchuk resulted with the puck in the back of the net after a very nice rush in the offensive zone. Despite three powerplays in the last ten minutes Belarus was not able to launch much sustained pressure against Eremenko because their key players were exhausted and Russia earned their ticket to Friday's Semi-Final were they will face Team USA.