Denmark humbled Olympic champion Canada in a 2-2 tie and defending titleholder Slovakia thrashed host Finland 5-1 in qualification-round openers Friday at the world ice hockey championship.
Denmark avenged a 54-year-old grudge in Turku. Canada won 47-0 against Denmark in 1949, the previous time the Danes appeared in the elite event.
"You could call it revenge, I suppose," defenseman Jens Nielsen said with an enormous grin. "This is unbelievable. We didn't expect this. Canada is such a good team."
Canada tied the game late in the second period, through Jay Bouw-meester's second long floater, then were shut down. Canada took 43 shots to Denmark's 22.
"Obviously there's a lesson to be learned," Canada captain Ryan Smyth said. "We can't take other teams lightly. We didn't exactly take them lightly, but we didn't think it would be as hard as it was."
In other games, the Czech Republic, led by Milan Hejduk's two goals, beat Ukraine 5-2 in Helsinki, while Sweden handed Russia its first loss, winning the late game in Turku 4-2.
Slovakia and the Czech Republic are the only teams that have won all their four games so far, and both have virtually clinched quarterfinal spots from their qualification group.
Like Canada, Finland led early off a rebound by Florida's Olli Jokinen but Slovakia silenced the sellout crowd of 13,209 when it grabbed control from the start of the third period. Ladislav Nagy made it 2-1 and Miloslav Satan scored his first of successive goals.
Jorgen Jonsson got the game-winner for Sweden over Russia 1:11 into the third period, catching Russian goalie Maxim Sokolov scrambling to return to the crease after losing a fight for the puck behind the net.
After Ilya Kovalchuk's goal gave the Russians hope at 3-2 down, Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin added the insurance marker for Sweden with less than a minute left when Russian coach Vladimir Plyushchev pulled Sokolov for an extra attacker.
"This was an important win for us," Jonsson said. "We knew what Russia's skills were and we were prepared for them. We did a good job on our end and kept ahead of them by one step all the way. That was key."
Russia lies second to Canada in its qualification group, a point behind with four carried over from the previous round. Sweden also has four points but a lower goal differential. The Swiss are fourth with two points, ahead of Denmark with one and Latvia with none.
In relegation-round play at Tampere, the US routed Slovenia 7-2 for its first win at the championship, while Belarus beat Japan 3-1.
Phil Housley, the oldest player in the tournament at age 39, scored for the Americans. The US meet Belarus on Saturday in a game that could decide the group winner.
If Far East representative Japan finishes fourth, the second and third-placed tams are relegated to the first division next year. If Japan finishes third, the second and fourth-placed teams are relegated.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier