The Puck Stops Here

The highest level competitive hockey we will see in the world this spring is likely going to be the World Championships, so I will cover it. After two days of play we have seen each team play once.

Russia 4 Austria 2 - A tough match for the home country of Austria, but they performed well. Goaltender Bernd Brueckler stopped 31 of 34 shots from the far more talented Russian team. It was tied 2-2 with less than 4 minutes remaining beofre Alexei Kovalev scored the eventual game winner. Ilya Kovlachuk added an empty net insurance goal.

Canada 6 Latvia 4 - Another tough battle. Rick Nash paced the Canadian team with a hat trick plus an assist. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau were other players gathering multiple points for Canada.

Slovakia 2 Belarus 1 - Goaltenders Jan Lasak for Slovakia and Andrei Mezin for Belarus kept both teams off the scoreboard for the first 2 periods. Marian Gaborik and Marian Hossa both scored a goal and assisted the other one.

Finland 2 Denmark 1 - Finland played a very good game keeping Denmark to only 15 shots. Niko Kapanen scored the eventual game winner and assisted the other goal. It would have been a Finland shutout if not for Kasper Degn scoring for Denmark in the final minute.

Czech Republic 3 Switzerland 1 - Czechs played a solid game. Goaltender Tomas Vokoun stopped 22 of 23 Swiss shots. Vaclav Varada had a goal and an assist for the Czechs. Pavel Kubina 2 assists.

USA 7 Slovenia 0 - The Slovenian team was badly overpowered. I dont think the Americans are the dominant team in the tournament, merely the Slovenians are the "weak sister". Rick DiPietro stopped 15 shots for the shutout. Mike Knuble led the US offence with 2 goals. The only other multiple point scorers in the balanced US attack were Brian Gionta with a goal and an assist and Erik Cole with 2 assists.

Kazakhstan 2 Germany 1 - A mild upset. Kazaks got two first period goals from Dmitri Upper and Yevgeniy Koroshkov and held on the rest of the way. Their goalie Vitaliy Kolesnik stopped 32 of 33 shots.

Sweden 3 Ukraine 2 - Sweden threw all they had at Ukraine goalie Kostyantyn Simchuk, but he stopped 44 of 47 shots. It was tied until mid 3rd period when Daniel Alfresson scored the winner to go with an earlier assist. Thomas Rhodin scored 2 assists.