Jaroslav Hlinka scored twice and had an assist as the Czech Republic cruised past Austria 6-1 and were joined by Russia, Finland and the US in the qualifying round of the world ice hockey championship on Sunday.
Alexei Morozov's hat trick and two assists led Russia past Ukraine 8-1, defenseman Petteri Nummelin netted two power-play goals in Finland's 6-2 win over Denmark, and forward Lee Stempniak scored twice to lift the US over Belarus 5-1.
As in the 8-2 thumping of Belarus on Friday, the Czechs were ruthless on the power play, converting three times.
PHOTO: AFP
Peter Sykora and Hlinka scored in the first period, and the Austrians limited the Czechs to one goal in the second, by Petr Caslava on a power play at 10:02.
Raimund Divis ruined Roman Cechmanek's shutout bid when he wristed the puck from the sideboards over Cechmanek's left shoulder at 17:08.
In the final period, Czech goals went to Michal Barinka, Hlinka, and Jan Marek.
The Czechs, bidding for their third consecutive appearance in the final, will face their first real test of the tournament today against the US in final Group B play.
"That will be a tough game, our first real game here," Hlinka said.
The Americans were 3-0 up by the end of the first period against Belarus, with scores to defenseman Jack Johnson, and forwards Lee Stempniak and Chad Larose.
Despite the second period becoming a little edgier as Belarus became more frustrated, Chris Clark added a fourth US goal 4:30 in, and while enjoying a two-man advantage, Stempniak banged in his third goal in two games.
Belarus captain Oleg Antonenko delighted the largely partisan crowd when he ended John Grahame's shutout bid, deking defenseman Brian Pothier to flick the puck in over Grahame's shoulder.
Ukraine defender Sergii Klymentiev opened the scoring just four minutes into the Group D game against Russia when his slapshot went through the legs of goalie Alexander Eremenko.
But Russia scored two power-play goals in a three-minute span to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
One was Morozov's opener, a rebound into the top corner at 9:38. His second also went top corner on a power play with less than a minute left in the second period. He completed the hat trick at 11:40 in the third, taking a pass from Danis Zaripov and beating the goalie high on the stick side.
Sergey Zinoviev, Ilya Nikulin and Vitali Proshkin also scored for Russia.
"It was a great game for us," Morozov said. "We have a lot of talented players on this team and all our lines are scoring right now."
Russia, bidding for its first world title since 1993, has 17 goals in two preliminary round games.
Ukraine dropped to 0-2 and will face Denmark in its final first-round game on Tuesday. Russia faces Finland, which beat Denmark 6-2 to improve to 2-0.
Nummelin, playing in his 13th world championship, beat Denmark goaltender Michael Madsen with a wrist shot into the top corner on a 5-on-3 at 7:36 in the first period of the Group D game.
Denmark tied the score at 12:49 on another 5-on-3 power play through Jesper Damgaard's low shot from the point.
Mikko Koivu gave the 2006 Olympic silver medalists a 2-1 lead two minutes later with a short-handed goal, and Nummelin's second of the game on another 5-on-3 with just over a minute left in the opening period made it 3-1.
Peltonen scored Finland's third 5-on-3 goal at 3:28 of the second, defenseman Aki Berg scored early in the third, and Jukka Hentunen added another midway through the final period to complete the scoring for Finland.
Denmark got one back on a power play at 5-1 down when Christoffer Kjaergaard took a perfect centering pass from Frans Nielsen and redirected the puck.
Finland will face a much bigger challenge when it plays host Russia today.
Austria and Belarus will be in a must-win situation today. The loser will play the relegation round in an attempt to avoid dropping out of world hockey's elite group.
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