Russia's Alexander Perezhogin (L) challenges US Matt Niskanen during their Group E qualification round game at the 2009 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships in Bern. (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)
Russia crushes US to reach hockey quarter-finals
Published 03 May, 2009, 06:23
Russia scored three power play goals en route to a 4-1 win over the U.S. at the World Ice Hockey Championships in Switzerland. The victory puts Russia into the last eight, where they’ll be the top-seeded team.
Undefeated after four games, the title holders play Latvia on Sunday. The result, however, is not that important.
The Americans took the lead just 3:16 into the opening period with Toronto’s forward Lee Stempniak’s scoring. But then luck turned its back on Team US.
Just two minutes later Oleg Saprykin (CSKA) equalized. Then, Alexander Perezhogin's (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) power-play goal on the 10th minute of the period put the Russian team into the lead for the first time. Sergei Mozyakin's (Atlant Moscow) scored a goal just two minutes before the end of the first period making it 3-1.
The American side never recovered, maybe because of penalty problems or tiredness after playing for two days running. Alexander Radulov’s second-period goal settled the issue at 4-1.
On Monday the US team face Switzerland.
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