Russia struck late with two third-period goals on Thursday to beat Olympic champions Canada 2-1 and book a spot in the ice hockey world championship semi-finals.
Russia were to play Finland in the last four yesterday after the team beat Norway 4-1. Holders Czech Republic face Sweden in the other semi-final.
Canada took the lead in the second period, when Jason Spezza latched onto Alex Pietrangelo’s pass to slip the puck past Konstantin Barulin for his fourth goal of the tournament.
Photo: Reuters
The young Canadian team, led by Rick Nash, outshot the Russians by a wide margin, but Barulin made some spectacular saves to keep his side in with a chance.
Canada dominated until the last part of the third period, when Russian scored two quick goals. For the first, Alexei Kaigorodov stole the puck while on the penalty kill and skated in alone to give the goalie little chance.
A few minutes later, Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils slammed the door shut when he put Russia ahead, leaving it to Barulin to hold off a final flurry of shots.
“Both teams played their hearts out,” Canada coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We made a couple of mistakes in the third period and they ended up in our net. We couldn’t stretch the 1-0 lead when we had it.”
Earlier, Finland reached the semi-finals for the first time since 2008 after a comprehensive win over Norway.
Ken Andre Olimb fired Norway ahead with a penalty shot early in the second period, but Jarkko Immonen and Tuomo Ruutu quickly replied to put Finland ahead.
Immonen grabbed his second on a power play at 15.38 in the period to become the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals and Jani Lajunen made it 4-1.
Finland captain Mikko Koivu is excited to play Russia.
“I think we have to stay strong as a team and do things that we do good, and obviously try to do things a little better again and more forward,” Koivu said. “Obviously every game is always different, some games you have to play very good defense to win the game.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite