Russia overwhelm France at ice hockey world championships
Defending champions Russia surged to a 4-0 lead against France inside 10 minutes before easing off to record a 7-2 win at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Switzerland.
In Sunday`s late game, the Russians put themselves back on top of Group A with the maximum 6 points, one ahead of the Swiss. They meet the hosts in the group`s deciding game on Tuesday.
Despite a host of injury problems, with Anton Volchenkov out for the tournament after scoring in the opening 5-0 victory over Germany and Alexander Frolov missing with a cold, Alexander Radulov scored the first goal after only two minutes.
Danis Zaripov scored the second in the eighth minute, sparking a flurry of three goals in under a minute. Radulov added his second 14 seconds later and Alexander Perezhogin got the fourth 39 seconds after that.
France called a timeout and steadied the ship with a goal from Luc Tardiff after 11 minutes, before Alexei Tereshchenko got two power-play goals in the 15th and 28th minutes. The scoring was finished off by Kevin Hecquefeuille, who made it 6-2 late in the second period, and Ilya Kovalchuk half way through the final period.
By then, however, both teams were looking ahead to their games on Tuesday, when Russia will take on Switzerland, who continued to struggle after their 1-0 win over France on Friday, needing overtime to get past Germany 3-2. The French and the Germans face off to decide who will have to play in the relegation round.
Russia`s injury worries looked to have worsened during the France game, with Zaripov playing no part after scoring his eighth-minute goal, but after the game trainer Vyacheslav Bykov put on a brave face.
"We will work with what we`ve got. Injuries and illness are very hard to control," he said. "The doctors are on the case, everything is being done to make sure everyone is healthy."
He did not rule out adding to the roster for the knockout stages, perhaps adding players from the NHL as teams get knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"In any case we shall wait to see how the series between Washington and the New York Rangers ends, and then completely finalize the squad," Bykov said.
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