Russia beefs up with Ovechkin, Semin
STOCKHOLM — Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin will join Russia at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
The two members of the Washington Capitals became available after their NHL team was eliminated from the playoffs by the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Russia hasn’t suffered without them — the team is undefeated through six round-robin games and has a three-point lead on Sweden in the Stockholm pool.
Ovechkin and Semin are expected to join the team on Wednesday, one day before the quarterfinals.
It’s the eighth tournament appearance for Ovechkin, who won gold with Russia in 2008 as well as silver in 2010 and bronze in 2005 and 2007. He finished the NHL regular season with 38 goals and 65 points.
Semin, meanwhile, will play in his sixth world championship after finishing the NHL regular season with 21 goals and 33 assists. He was also on the gold-medal winning team in 2008, took silver in 2010 and bronze in 2005. In Sunday’s games:
RUSSIA 2 CZECH REPUBLIC 0
At Stockholm, Konstantin Barulin made 30 saves as Russia defeated the Czech Republic. Alexander Perezhogin and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Russians.
U.S. 5 FINLAND 0
Max Pacioretty opened the scoring and the United States rolled to a 5-0 victory over defending champion Finland.
Kyle Palmieri added a goal in the
second period, followed two minutes later by a power-play goal by Justin Faulk.
SLOVAKIA 1 SWITZERLAND 0
At Helsinki, Tomas Tatar had the lone goal to lift Slovakia past the Swiss.
NORWAY 12 GERMANY 4
At Stockholm, Patrick Thoresen had three goals and three assists as Norway had six goals in the second period to blast the Germans.