Russia beats Swiss 5-3 at ice hockey worlds 13/05/2008 00:00

Russia beat Switzerland 5-3 on Monday to set up a rematch between the two in the quarterfinals at the ice hockey World Championship.

13 May 2008

QUEBEC CITY - Dmitry Kalinin, Alexander Ovechkin and Maxim Sushinsky scored first period goals and Russia beat Switzerland 5-3 on Monday to set up a rematch between the two in the quarterfinals at the ice hockey World Championship.

The result finished Russia atop its qualifying round group and dropped Switzerland to fourth, requiring them to meet again in the quarterfinals. The second-place Czech Republic will meet third-place Sweden in another quarterfinal in Quebec City on Wednesday.

At Halifax, Nova Scotia, the United States wrapped up its qualifying round schedule with a 9-1 rout of Norway. New York Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky accounted for three for the Americans, who scored three times in each period.
With the win, the United States locked up third place in its qualifying group.

In battle between unbeaten teams, Shane Doan and Dany Heatley each scored twice as the Canadians defeated Finland 6-3 to set up a quarterfinals meeting with Norway, after Germany beat final eight hopeful Latvia 5-3. In Monday's other late game Denmark upset Belarus 3-2.

Ryan Getzlaf and Patrick Sharp also had goals for Canada, which has now won 15 straight World Championship games dating back to last year.

Antti Pihlstrom, with two, and Tuomo Ruutu had goals for the Finns, who will face the United States in the quarters.

Finland was playing for the second consecutive day and was without forward Olli Jokinen and defenseman Anssi Salmela, who each were suspended after receiving match penalties during a 3-2 win over the Americans on Sunday.

In Quebec City, Switzerland, which did not get a shot on goal until 10:07 into the game, trailed 4-0 going into the third period, but then got early goals from Rafaele Sannitz and Julien Vauclair to keep it close.

Kalinin crept in from the point to convert a cross-ice feed from Danis Zaripov at 15:21 of the first. Ovechkin tipped Ilya Kovalchuk's point shot in from the slot on a power play at 17:49 and Sushinsky breezed past defenseman Beat Forster and beat Anaheim Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller at 18:45.

Sergei Fedorov scored with Alexander Semin standing in Hiller's crease 10:27 into the second frame.

The Swiss played a more aggressive game in the third and Sannitz scored on his team's first power play chance 32 seconds in on a point blast that sailed past Evgeny Nabokov. Then Vauclair made an end-to-end rush short-handed and beat Nabokov with an off-wing wrist shot at 5:30.

Hiller was pulled for an extra attacker with three minutes left to play and Sushinsky got his second of the game into the empty net at 17:25. One minute later, Romano Lemm banged in a goal for the Swiss on a feed from Andres Ambuhl.

[AP / Expatica]