Hockey championship
May 16, 2010
Russia won 3-2 over Germany during their Group E game on Saturday, with Russia's Alexander Ovechkin netting the winning goal. Teammate Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves.
It was the fourth consecutive victory for Russia, who have a history of winning their post-Cold-War hockey confrontations with the Germans. This was their eighth victory over Germany at the World Championship.
"We expected Germany to play a defensive style and they did in the first two periods," said Ovechkin. "But the late goal in the second period and their home crowd's support added power to their performance in the third."
Russia scored the opening goal at 14:20, with Ilya Kovalchuk sending home a shot from Alexander Frolov. Forward Nikolai Kulemin sent home a goal in the sixth minute of the second period to make it 2-0 Russia.
Germany's Christian Ehrhoff scored just a second before the intermission, but Ovechkin snatched back Russia's two-goal lead after scoring an assist from Alexander Semin with just over ten minutes left in the game. Alexander Barta scored the winning goal just four minutes later.
Russia will next face Denmark on Sunday. Germany's next game is against Belarus on Sunday night.
svs/SID/AFP
Editor: Rick Demarest