Worlds Underway
The IIHF World Championships got underway in Moscow today with a slate of four games. Team USA got off to a rousing start with a 6-2 win over Austria, giving it three standings points for a regulation victory under the tournament’s new points system. The youthful USA team got a goal from Caps captain Chris Clark and an assist from Washington defenseman Brian Pothier. The Americans outshot the Austrians by a 47-16 count, and six different Team USA skaters scored to support John Grahame in goal. Nineteen-year-old Phil Kessel started the scoring for the Americans, and Kessel accounted for 11 of Team USA’s shots on goal
Team Finland blanked Team Ukraine by a 5-0 score. Timo Parssinen scored twice for the Fins, and netminder Fredrik Norrena made 25 stops for the shutout.
In other action on Friday’s opening day, Belarus takes on the Czech Republic and Russia faces Denmark.
As a reminder, you can watch the action live on your computer or television. World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) will cover every Team USA match as well as the quarter, semi, and final rounds of the world championship. Log on to www.wcsn.com for more information. WCSN has also partnered with Dish Network to provide television pay-per-view packages of the Worlds. Visit www.dishnetwork.com/hockey for more information.
April 27, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Mike, did you see Hanlon’s heartrending letter to the team and fans of belarus?
http://www.en.hockey.by/news-8.html
A great message!
One may have issues with some of his coaching decisions (especially concerning ice-time for those young, offensively-talented forwards) but he definitely is a great guy. I really hope he leads the Caps into the playoffs next year and proves all those doubters wrong…