Olympic champions Canada routed France 9-1 after two goals from Jeff Skinner on Sunday to advance to the second round of the ice hockey world championship.
Canada, who are 2-0 after a 4-1 victory over Belarus on Friday, face Switzerland in their last match in Group B today.
“We look like we got a team with hunger to score goals,” Canada coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We got better as the game went on.”
Germany and Switzerland recorded their second victories to advance, while Russia collected their first win.
Canada’s Marc-Andre Gragnani opened the scoring 1 minute, 2 seconds into the match from a power play on a rebound. Jason Spezza doubled the lead at 6 minutes, 35 seconds and Jeff Skinner finished the first-period rout at the 12 minute, 2 second mark.
France fought back and replied through Pierre Edouard Bellemare, who scored midway through the second period on a power play, before Chris Stewart and Alex Pietrangelo netted within 43 seconds for Canada to hold a 5-1 lead.
Bret Burns, captain Rick Nash, Skinner and Travis Zajac finished the rout with third-period goals.
Russia rebounded from Friday’s opening-day loss to Germany by beating Slovenia 6-4 in Bratislava in a hard-fought win.
Vitali Atyushov, Maxim Afinogenov, Dmitri Kulikov and Yevgeni Artyukhin scored for Russia to lead 4-2, but Slovenia equalized through goals by Bostjan Golicic and Rok Pajic with 8 minutes, 32 seconds left in the final period.
Alexander Radulov scored at 56:19 seconds left and Sergei Zinoviev then added the sixth goal.
Marcel Muller and Felix Schutz both had a goal and assist to lead Germany 4-3 over host Slovakia to the next round.
After a scoreless opening period, Muller, John Tripp and Frank Hordler scored a goal each in the second to silence the home crowd at Bratislava’s Orange Arena.
Schutz added the fourth for Germany in the third period, before Slovakia hit back through goals by Ladislav Nagy and captain Pavol Demitra.
After upsetting Russia 2-0 on Friday, Germany have six points from two games in Group A. Slovakia are on three and face Russia in their final group-stage game.
In Kosice, Ryan Gardner scored twice to help Switzerland to a 4-1 win over Belarus and a berth into the second round.
Belarus will fight with France for the third spot from Group B in the next round.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
RSS