Captain Alexei Morozov scored his second goal in sudden-death overtime as Russia rallied to beat the Czech Republic 5-4 in the preliminary round of the World Ice Hockey Championships.
Morozov’s goal just over three minutes into the extra session spoiled a superb performance on Sunday by Czech forward Patrik Elias who had a hat trick at the Colisee arena.
The thrilling see-saw game featured four lead changes, seven power play goals and a Russian penalty shot in overtime.
In Group B action, Dany Heatley had a goal and three assists and Pascal Leclaire stopped 30 shots for the shutout as defending champions Canada cruised to a 7-0 win over Latvia at the Halifax Metro Centre arena.
The US defeated Slovenia 5-1 in the other Halifax game while Denmark rolled over Italy 6-2 in the late game Quebec City.
With the victory, Russia take over first place in Group D with five points in two games, one point ahead of the Czechs.
Konstantin Gorovikov, Kostantin Korneyev and Sergei Zinoviev also scored for Russia who outshot the Czechs 4-2 in the overtime.
Elias’ three goals all came on the power play. Buffalo Sabres forward Ales Kotalik added another power-play goal for the Czechs who blew two leads in the game (2-1, 4-3) and outshot the Russians 43-27.
Morozov capped off an exciting overtime frame, taking a drop pass from Zinoviev and firing it between the blocker of Czech goalie Milan Hnilicka and the far post.
The overtime started with Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk being awarded a penalty shot after just 30 seconds when he was hauled down on a breakaway by Tomas Kaberle. But after some nifty stickhandling moves, Kovalchuk’s shot hit the left post and sailed into the corner.
The victory may have proved costly for Russia as starting goaltender Alexander Eremenko left the game with a suspected knee injury. Russia are now left with just one fit goalie because their third string goalie is also hurt, Bykov said.
Eremenko was replaced by backup Mikhail Biryukov and it seemed to spark the Russians as Morozov scored the first of his two goals just minutes later to give Russia a 3-2 lead.
In Halifax, Canada’s Rick Nash had two goals against Latvia and with his four points on Sunday, Dany Heatley surpassed current general manager Steve Yzerman for the all-time lead for Canada in World Championships.
Heatley is playing on a star-studded line with Anaheim Ducks Ryan Getzlaf and Columbus Blue Jackets Nash. The trio have 16 points two games so far.
Like Russia, Canada are also 2-0 after beating Slovenia 5-1 in their opening game.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS