IIHF World Championship round up - day one

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Hockey correspondent Tambo takes a look at the action from Day One of competition in the IIHA World Championships.

CANADA 6 LATVIA 4

A huge and very noisy Latvian support were silenced after just short of three mins when Brendan Morrison smashed a slap shot from the face off circle past the hapless Latvian goalie to give Canada a PP lead. The crowd were only quiet for about a minute and a half when a bad mistake by Souray in the corner gave the Latvians a 2 on 1 and Tamijevs put the biscuit right on the tape of Semjenovs to tie the game. Canada was looking very rusty and the Latvians had some good passages of play but the teams went in level at the first interval.

Much of the same at the start of the second with Latvia pressing a nervous Canadian D, until yet another power play brought the North Americans the lead. Boyle looked to have been well marshalled by the D but somehow he managed to get a pass into the slot for Walker who set up Joe Thornton for the go ahead goal. A mistake by Brodeur set up Ankipans all alone in front of goal and the shot looked to have beaten Brodeur on his glove side. First TV pictures showed a magnificent save but the ref went upstairs for confirmation and the goal was given. Latvia looked solid in defence when at even strength but yet another penalty cost them the third goal from Canada on 34 minutes. Jovanovski passed to Nash who put them ahead for the 3rd time. A minute and a half later Marleau took a beaut of a pass from Heatley from behind the goal to make it 4-2. Four goals from 4 power plays. Canada looked to be on easy street two mins later when Nash skated the length of the ice with a Latvian D man draped all over him. This guy must have the longest reach and stick in creation as somehow he managed to slide the puck under Masalskis at his near post for 5-2. That was it for Masalskis and national hero Artus Irbe replaced him.

In the third Canada again showed their lack of ice time as the Latvians scored two goals with two shots to bring the score to 5-4. Nash, man of the match by a country mile gave Canada the insurance goal when he finished off a superb pass from Thornton for 6-4

A win for Canada and they will surely get better as the competition continues. It was pretty evident that only eight of the squad had been icing regularly during the season, as they looked way off the pace for long periods. Latvia is again a plucky side and if you give them chances they will score on you.

FINLAND 2 DENMARK 1

In a tough defensive game Finland came out on top over outsiders Denmark, but not without a scare or two. Finland opened the scoring with just over a minute to go in the first when, on the powerplay a good move between Kapanen and Jokinen ended with a slide pass to Karalahti to one time Hirsch glove side. A bigger blow to Denmark was the loss of Kim Stahl with a severe cut to his foot ending his Championship participation before it had properly started.

A dour scoreless second period highlighted by some good hard fore-checking by the Danes and the teams came out for the last 20 mins at 1-0 to the Finns.

An early third period goal from Kapanen gave the Finns a two-goal lead, which they held until 59.02 when Kasper Degn marked to give them hope. Too little too late for a Danish team who competed well when even strengthed but had little to show up front.

So a first victory for the magnificent Finns (who says you cannot be biased in this reporting malarkey?) but they will have to be more adventurous as the competition warms up.

In group A in Vienna, Russia skated to a less than comfortable 4-2 win against the host nation.

Russia opened the scoring at 10.10 as Malkin fed Ovechkin and he swept the puck past Bruckler at the second attempt for 1-0. With just over 4 mins left in the period Austria tied the game on the power play as Setzinger swatted home a rebound from a vicious Kalt shot from the slot.

The Russians again took the lead at 23.10 with a short-handed strike by Divis from a backhand pass by Kharitonov and that was about it for the second.

The partisan home crowd were willing their team on and they were rewarded by an equaliser seven minutes into the period. A crazy goal more akin to a golf shank by Divis from the left wing arched its way through the air before slipping between the legs of a very embarrassed Sokolin in the Russian net. With less than four minutes left in the third, Austria nearly pulled of the rush that dreams are made off as Setzinger burst through the neutral zone, split the defence wide open and was only foiled as Sokolov failed to buy the deke and got his glove down on the puck. Unfortunately for the homesters Russia went straight down the ice and Kovalev brought on a very eerie silence all round the arena as he gave the Reds a 3-2 advantage. Austria pulled the brilliant Bruckler for the extra skater at 19.01 but eight seconds later Kovalchuk picked up a loose puck at the Austrian blueline and scored the empty netter for 4-2.

A plucky performance by Austria and a less than impressive one by Russia, but its early days yet and the big Red machine looks very impressive on paper.

SLOVAKIA 2 BELARUS 1

In the other game in this group, Slovakia beat Belarus 2-1 in a closely fought game. Mezin in the Belarus goal had an absolute stormer and was only beaten by goals from big guns Marian Hossa and Marian Gaborik in the final period. A mark from Koltsov sandwiched each goal but was just not enough to provide what would have been a major shock.

More tomorrow as the USA take on Slovenia in Group B, Ukraine and Sweden match up in Group C and Group D kicks off with Switzerland v Czech Republic and Germany take on Kazakhstan.

Tambo

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