Defending champ Russia, Sweden record 2nd wins at worlds
Defending champion Russia beat newcomer Slovenia 5-3 for its second straight victory at the ice hockey world championship on Sunday and 2014 bronze medalist Sweden also made it two wins from two after routing another newcomer Austria 6-1.
Evgeni Dadonov contributed two goals and two assists to Russia's win in Group B in Ostrava.
"It's good that I managed to score a couple of goals but in general we made too many mistakes," Dadonov said.
In a first-period attacking display, captain Ilya Kovalchuk and Islanders left winger Nikolay Kulemin scored 36 seconds apart early and Dadonov added his first with 1:04 left for a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar and Ziga Pance scored for Slovenia in the second and Robert Sabolic added one in the third.
Vadim Schipachyov also scored for Russia and added a couple of assists, while Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin played his first game at the worlds.
In Group A in Prague, the fast skating Swedes looked far too good for Austria. Nashville center forward Filip Forsberg led Sweden with a hat trick and an assist.
Forsberg opened the scoring in the first and complete his hat trick for a 6-0 lead in the second, forcing Austria to pull goalie Rene Swette.
Oscar Klefbom, Anton Lander and Elias Lindholm also had a goal each.
"We did a pretty good job," said Edmonton defenseman Klefbom. "They came out hard but we played pretty solid, we got a couple of goals and we kept working hard."
Later Sunday, star-studded Canada will be also looking for second straight victory in a game against Germany and last year's runner-up Finland wants to rebound from a loss to the United States with a win against Denmark. France also faces Switzerland and Slovakia takes on Belarus.
