Alex Kovalev scored the winning goal and minor-league goaltender Illya Bryzgalov held his own against the American stars as Russia beat the US 3-1 Thursday night in the World Cup of Hockey.
Bryzgalov, property of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, had 20 saves, and Dainius Zubrus and Viktor Kozlov also scored for Russia, which dealt Team USA its second consecutive loss. The Americans, 0-2 in the tournament, lost to Canada 2-1 on Tuesday in Montreal.
PHOTO: AFP
A handful of Russian fans, some wearing old Soviet Union jerseys, consistently made more noise than the American crowd. Their team gave them plenty to cheer for, outhustling an American squad with high-profile NHL players.
St. Louis Blues forward Keith Tkachuk scored Team USA's goal on a power play. The Americans stayed close thanks to another stellar performance by goaltender Robert Esche, who finished with 42 saves.
Esche, who stopped 30 shots against Canada, held off the speedy Russians for most of the game. Russia outshot the Americans 45-21.
Dallas Stars forward Mike Modano played for Team USA despite a lower-body injury. He assisted on Tkachuk's goal with a pretty pass, but the US team seemed flat offensively.
After a sluggish first period in which they were outshot 16-4, the Americans came out aggressively in the second, getting six shots in the first five minutes. But Russia tightened up defensively and played a physical style.
Kovalev's winner, at 5:05 of the third period, was a thing of beauty. He slipped the puck through a defender's legs, charged to the left, waited for Esche to go down and launched the puck into the right corner. Kozlov sealed it with 1:58 remaining when he wristed the puck from the high slot between two defenders and between Esche's pads.
In the second period, Zubrus got help from American captain Chris Chelios on his team's first goal. With a defender on his back, Zubrus skated around the back of the goal and fired a shot that hit off Chelios' skate and into the net to put Russia up 1-0.
But the Americans answered 1:24 later when Modano sent a perfect pass from the blue line to a cutting Tkachuk, who slid the puck under Bryzgalov's pads with 6:16 to play in the second period.
Finland 3, Germany 0
Miikka Kiprusoff posted his second straight shutout as Finland blanked Germany 3-0 Thursday night in the World Cup of Hockey, clinching home-ice advantage in the quarterfinals next week.
Kimmo Timonen, Teemu Selanne and Jere Lehtinen scored for Finland, which shut out the Czech Republic 4-0 in their opener Monday night in Helsinki.
"It has worked well. I have to thank the team for defending well," Kiprusoff said. "The trickiest situations arose when Germany played with five against three, then there are always chances."
The Finns return to their capital to meet archrival Sweden on Saturday. Sweden is also 2-0 in the European pool and gained home-ice advantage in the quarters with consecutive victories over Germany (5-2) and the Czechs (4-3).
Germany travels to Prague next to meet the Czechs on Friday in a game between the two winless teams. In the quarters, the group winner meets the No. 4 team at home and the runner-up plays the No. 3 team at home.
Timonen, one of the regular defenseman behind Finland's top line featuring Saku Koivu at center with Selanne and Lehtinen as wingers, scored the opening goal at 10:47 with Finland on the power play before a crowd of 12,975.
Selanne, who got an assist on the first goal, notched his first at 11:27 in the second, one-timed a slap shot from the left circle while the Finns had a two-man advantage for 28 seconds.
Goalie Olaf Kolzig, starting his second game in the tournament, had no chance. Timonen set up Selanne's first goal in the tournament with a perfect pass.
The Germans, who played much better in the second period, had an excellent chance to get back into the game when they had a two-man advantage for two minutes later in the period.
But "Kipper," as Kiprusoff is known in Calgary where he was one of the Flames' major weapons en route to the Stanley Cup finals last season, was never seriously challenged by the Germans.
Instead, Mikko Eloranta -- one of only two players from the Finnish League -- wasted a golden chance to make it 3-0 after the Finns killed the penalties. Leaving the penalty box, he took a mid-ice pass and skated in all alone, but Kolzig made a brilliant pad save.
Lehtinen made it 3-0 at 15:38 in the third period, roofing a backhander from the slot past a screened Kolzig.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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