Canada defeated Norway 3-2 on Saturday to advance to the -quarter-finals of the world ice hockey championships, while Finland’s Tuomo Ruutu denied hosts Slovakia a playoff place in front of their home crowd.
Russia, the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany advanced from Group E after the Slovaks and Denmark were eliminated.
In Group F, Jason Spezza, John Tavares and James Neal took Olympic champions Canada to a 3-0 lead before Norway fought back with goals by Ken Andre Olimb and Marius Holtet.
Photo: EPA
“We knew they would keep coming. It is just the way the games are these days, you shut it off for a couple of minutes and they find room,” Neal said. “We just got to keep on the gas pedal and not stand back, we have another tough game against Sweden coming up.”
Ruutu, who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes, silenced the home fans in Bratislava when he struck twice in the final period in Finland’s 2-1 victory over Slovakia.
“We were not good enough. It is just too bad, we had the team, we pushed, but something was missing. Everyone is disappointed, the fans and the team,” Los Angeles Kings’ Michal Handzus told reporters.
The US rallied from one down against France to take a a 3-1 lead through Derek Stepan, captain Mark Stuart and Chris Kreider, before Laurent Meunier grabbed a goal back for the French.
Denmark upset Germany 4-3 in a see-saw Group E match that was decided in the shootout. Austria defeated Slovenia 3-2 to record their first win in the tournament, while Latvia downed Belarus 6-3.
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
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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