Published: 24 April, 2009, 20:36
Edited: 24 April, 2009, 20:36
The show is on! Favorites Russia and Canada have kicked of their campaigns at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Switzerland, beating Germany and Belarus respectively.
Russia controlled the game in Bern from start to finish and Oleg Saprykin pushed the puck into the net after a great pass by Alexandr Radaulov after eight minutes.
And the defending champions doubled their lead one minute later. The Germans forgot Russia’s greatest attacking force – Ilya Kovalchuk – at the blue line. The Atlanta Thrashers forward went on to rendezvous with goalkeeper Dimitry Patzold, leaving him no chance.
And Germany’s netminder was upset again with five minutes to play in the period. Sergey Zinoviev was the fastest on the rebound to strike in a power play, 3-0 for Russia after the first period.
Patzold, who was born in the former Soviet republic Kazakhstan, was the main face in his team in the second period, in which he managed to keep a clean sheet.
But Vyacheslav Bykov’s men scored again at three minutes into the third period. Anton Kuryanov put the puck in the net after a sudden counterattack which looked much like a copy of Kovalchuk’s goal.
The Germans struggled in defense earning sixteen penalty minutes during the game against Russia’s four.
Danis Zaripov settled the final score, using yet another power play, 5-0, and was later named Russia’s man of the match.
Canada wasted no time with Belarus in the first period, scoring the first goal of the tournament after just 1 minute and 5 seconds. Stephen Stamkos put his name on the score board and the Tampa Bay attacker did it again in the middle of the period, making the score 2-0.
The rest of the goals came in the third period. The Maple Leafs scored three times when Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Danny Heatley made the score 5-0. And then Mikhail Grabovsky came up with a cancellation goal for Belarus, 5-1.