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Canada and Russia make no mistake against WJC newcomers
Both retain perfect records after comfortable wins against Norway and Latvia.
Canada continues to steamroll through WJC’s . A shutout win over Norway was Canada’s ninth straight win at the World Junior Chmapionships. Three of those came in the 2006 edition.
Norway, who were without a point, knew they would be up for a hard night against Canada.
A one-sided game ended in a penalty riddled game. The level of officiating frustrated Canadian coach Brent Sutter.
“I’m kind of sitting here wondering what a call is and what isn’t,” said Sutter. “You can barely touch a guy’s stick or skate now. As a fan, it’s not entertaining, and as a coach, it makes it difficult to coach.”
Nevertheless Canada had no trouble in downing the Norwegians. Three second period goals within a two minute span added to the lone goal scored in the first period resulted in a comfortable 4-0 win. Norway was only limited to just 13 shots on net.
Luc Bourdon had a goal and an assist for Canada whilst Jonathan Toews and Michael Blunden notched a pair assists.
On Saturday Canada meets arch-rivals USA in what promises to be a cracker game that will also decide who will finish first in the group. Norway will prepare for the relegation round in the meantime
Canada – Norway 4-0 (1-0;3-0;0-0)
1-0 15:27 Cameron Barker (Michael Blunden) PP
2-0 34:50 David Bolland (Kristopher Letang, Luc Bourdon) PP
3-0 35:16 Kyle Chipchura (Jonathan Toews, Michael Blunden)
4-0 36:41 Luc Bourdon (Jonathan Toews, Ryan Omarra)
Goaltenders:
CAN: Justin Pogge
NOR: Lars Hauge
Shots on goal:
CAN: 50
NOR: 13
Penalty minutes:
CAN: 82
NOR: 78
Russia also won its third game against former Soviet country Latvia.
Newcomers Latvia, who were still waiting for their first point of the tournament, kept the score tight but were never really in the game. The Latvians were outshot 20-40.
Like yesterday in their game against Slovakia, Russia paved their path in the first period.
Two goals, six seconds apart from each other, early in the first period gave Russia a kick-start.
Russian star Evgeny Malkin immediately punished Latvia on the first power play of the game. When the puck was dropped, Latvia had to concede a second blow. Nikolai Lemtyugov was credited with the goal.
Both teams exchanged goals in the second period.
Jurijs Klujevskis restored hope for the Latvians when he struck home on the power play to bring Latvia within one of their big neighbours. However, less than four minutes later Nikolai Lemtyugov scored his second of the game assisted by Ilia Zubov and Andrei Zubarev.
Just before that goal Latvian netminder Ugos Avotins came up big for his team when he stoned Gennady Churlov’s penalty shot.
A rather boring third period saw Russia continue its domination (Russia outshot Latvia 15-6) but they weren’t really destined to run up the score.
The win leaves Russia on to of the group with a 100% score whilst Latvia is still waiting for its first point. Latvia will have one game remaining in the group against Sweden to give their moral a boost.
Latvia – Russia 1-3 (0-2;1-1;0-0)
0-1 03:54 Evgeny Malkin (Denis Bodrov) PP
0-2 04:00 Nikolai Lemtyugov
1-2 32:58 Jurijs Klujevskis (Edgars Adamovics, Renars Demiters)
1-3 36:26 Nikolai Lemtyugov (Ilia Zubov, Andrei Zubarev)
Goaltenders:
LAT: Ugos Avotins
RUS: Semen Varlamov
Shots on goal:
LAT: 20
RUS: 40
Penalty minutes:
LAT: 31
RUS: 18
Link:
www.eurohockey.net/wjc
Story added on 30th December 2005 at 16:00 GMT
Story submitted by: Joeri Loonen.