US smothers Ukraine 7-1 as first round concludes

Blake Sloan scored twice to lead the US over Ukraine 7-1 and into the qualifying round of the ice hockey world championships on Wednesday.

In Group A, Jaromir Jagr sparked a late four-goal scoring flurry to give host Czech Republic a 5-1 win over Germany, while Marian Gaborik and Miroslav Satan each scored twice to help 2002 champion Slovakia beat Finland 5-2 in Group B.

Earlier, Dany Heatley netted a pair to lift Canada over Switzerland 3-1 and to the top of the Group D standings. In Group C, six different players scored to give Russia an easy 6-1 victory over Japan, a game which was decided in the first five minutes.

The US finished third in Group B at the end of the preliminary round. Slovakia tops the table with five points and Finland is second with four.

With their first preliminary round win, the Americans avoided an embarrassing repeat of last year's showing in Finland, where they failed to advance from the group stage and eventually wound up 13th in the 16-team tournament.

"We did a good job of skating," US head coach Peter Laviolette said. "That was the first and foremost thing on our list. We needed to skate, we needed to put the puck behind them. We knew they did a good job in protecting their blue line, and if we turned the puck over that they had the skill on their team that could beat us with long plays."

Winless Ukraine dropped to the relegation round with France, Kazakhstan and Japan.

The Americans play Sweden in their opening qualifying round match Friday.

Sloan, a defenseman from the Dallas Stars, opened the scoring at 8:43 in the first period. His other goal, at 14:28 in the second period, made it 5-0.

Ryan Malone, Richard Park and Paul Mara notched three straight power-play goals after Sloan's opener, while Keith Ballard, the only college player on the team, and Mike Grier added the others for the UD.

"I think our power play was probably the best it's been in the three games that we've had so far," Laviolette said. "The biggest thing for me as a coach is that I can see our team taking small steps in the right direction to where we need to go in order to be successful in the tournament."

Roman Salnikov spoiled Mike Dunham's shutout bid just 38 seconds before the final buzzer, scoring a power-play goal with Sloan serving a holding-the-stick penalty.

Canada its best game of the tournament, and played an increasingly physical game that had the Swiss running.

"Our physical side kind of took over," Danny Briere said. "In the first period they came out strong but we kept coming at them. In the second they weren't holding onto the puck much. They kept chipping the puck and trying to pass their trouble to someone else."

Heatley two, while Brendan Morrison scored the other with a lovely wraparound goal. Marcel Jenni had Switzerland's only goal.

Canada Roberto Luongo made 21 saves, while Swiss 'keeper Martin Gerber was peppered with 31 shots.

Canada scoring 44 seconds into the second period, when Scott Neidermayer sent a loose puck to Heatley from the point, with the Thrashers forward swiping it in on Gerber's stick side.

Morrison it 2-0 when he picked up the puck from Canucks teammate Matt Cooke, and spun around the goal to slip it between the Mighty Ducks 'keeper's skates at 11:07.

"Our coach Mike Babcock knows Gerber pretty well, he's had him all season with the Ducks," Morrison said. "So he gave us tips. We talked about the wraparound between periods. I guess I was listening."

Blasting from the right circle, Heatley scored his second on a power play after Julien Vauclair was sent off for checking Glen Murray's head.

Jenni Luongo's shutout bid with less than seven minutes left, slamming in a rebound after the Swiss rushed the net.

"It was our best game so far," Morrison said. "We're getting better every game. We knew we had to get going, to take the initiative and not just wait for something to happen."