|
USA handles Belarus at worlds
By
Sports Network
|
  
|
  Belarus forward Konstantin Koltsov tries to score past Team USA defenceman Alex Goligoski and goaltender Jimmy Howard during their 2012 IIHF men's World Championships game in Helsinki, Finland, May 10, 2012. (GRIGORY DUKOR/Reuters) |
HELSINKI - Jimmy Howard made 23 saves and five different players scored a goal for the United States in a 5-3 victory over Belarus on Thursday at the 2012 World Championships.
Justin Abdelkader, Cam Atkinson, Nate Thompson, Bobby Ryan and Paul Stastny all lit the lamp for the Americans, who now have eight points and sit third in the Group H standings.
The USA plays again on Friday against Kazakhstan.
Alexei Kalyuzhny, Yevgeni Kovyrshin and Alexei Ugarov scored for Belarus. Vitali Koval stopped 25-of-28 shots in almost 50 minutes of action, while Andrei Mezin surrendered two goals on eight shots.
With the game tied at two, Thompson gave the USA the lead for good near the end of the middle stanza. Thompson came around the Belarus net and fired the puck off Kovyrshin and into the goal.
Ryan's deflection of a Cam Fowler point shot made it 4-2 with 7:50 to play. Stastny added a goal of his own over three minutes later to essentially put the game away.
Kovyrshin scored with 10 seconds left to account for the final margin.
Jussi Jokinen scored twice and Mikko Koivu added a goal and three assists for Finland, as the reigning gold medalist dominated France, 7-1.
Valtteri Filppula dished out three assists for Finland, which scored four power-play goals to improve to 6-0 against France in its World Championship games.
Petri Vehanen stopped 17-of-18 shots as Finland stayed perfect through four games. They sit first in the Group H standings with 12 points.
In Stockholm, Russia stayed unbeaten with a 3-1 win over Denmark.
Yevgeni Malkin, Yevgeni Medvedev and Dmitri Kalinin scored for Russia, which is tied for first place with Sweden in the Group S standings with 12 points.
Konstantin Barulin stopped 35-of-36 shots for the Russians.
The Czech Republic earned a 3-1 win over Latvia to move into third place in Group S with eight points.
