Defending champions Russia made it two wins in two matches at the world ice hockey championships on Sunday with a 7-2 win over France.
Forwards Alexander Radulov and Alexei Tereshchenko both recorded doubles, while Konstantin Gorovikov and Vitaly Atyushov collected two assists in the Group B match at the Berne arena.
Russia stunned their rivals from the start, sending five pucks home in the opening period, while France replied once through Kevin Hecquefeuille.
In the second period, the teams traded goals, with Atlanta Thrashers striker Ilya Kovalchuk rounding off the scoring 9:20 into the third.
In Group A, Canada romped to a 9-0 win over Hungary, who are making a return to the top flight after an absence of 70 years.
Marty St Louis, Shea Weber, Derek Roy and James Neal all scored in the opening period for Canada. In the second, St Louis and Weber added one apiece to make it 6-0.
In the last period, St Louis completed his hat-trick, while Mike Fisher and Jason Spezza completed the rout.
In Group B, Switzerland beat Germany 3-2 thanks to New York Islanders blueliner Mark Streit’s sudden-death winner.
“For me, it was the best game between Switzerland and Germany in the 12 years that I have played them,” Swiss manager Ralph Krueger said. “It was a great game, and there was great aggression in a positive sense.”
Germany took the lead through Christoph Ullmann, who swept a rebound into the unguarded net after Yannic Seidenberg’s initial shot on a powerplay at 6:26.
Roman Wick leveled just 2:10 later, while Mathias Seger lifted the Swiss 2-1 up 3:25 into the second.
Christoph Schubert equalized with his shorthanded goal after beating the Swiss defense on a breakaway at 33:02.
Streit delighted the capacity 11,500 crowd with the winner, slapping the puck in through the traffic 1:18 into extra time on a powerplay.
Meanwhile, Belarus scraped a hard-fought 2-1 Group A win over 2002 champions Slovakia in a penalty shootout.
Andrei Stas put Belarus 1-0 up 13:17 into the second period beating Slovakian ‘keeper Rastislav Stana from the right face-off circle.
Forward Marcel Hossa leveled with 2:54 remaining from Andrei Sekera’s cross-ice pass which sent the rivals into overtime, which ended goalless.
Belarus were slightly more accurate in the series of penalty shots with their forward Oleg Antonenko scoring the winner.
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