ST. PETERSBURG, Russia: Finland handed the United States its second loss by 3-2 at the world ice hockey championship on Monday.
Finland’s third win from three matches kept pace with Canada, which routed Belarus 8-0 with seven different players scoring, and led their group on goal difference. Canada has 20 goals in three games, and doesn’t play Finland until the last round of group matches next week.
The US is fourth with its only win against Belarus. The top four qualify for the quarterfinals.
“I thought it was a very competitive game,” US coach John Hynes said. “Unfortunately for us we were one goal short but we really liked the intensity level that we played with, and I feel like we really took a step in our team game.”
Mikko Koivu and Antti Pihlstrom scored for Finland in the first period before Frank Vatrano made it 2-1 with a slapshot.
Connor Murphy leveled early in the third for the US, but Leo Komarov slid in the puck four minutes later for the game-winner.
The game pitted two players up for the No. 1 spot in next month’s NHL draft, Finland’s Patrik Laine and America’s Auston Matthews. While Laine did not add to his four goals and two assists for the tournament, Matthews took the puck from Laine and assisted Vatrano’s goal to move to two goals and two assists.
“This was the worst game for me in a long time,” said Laine, who said he “stopped playing” before losing the puck to Matthews in the mistaken belief that there had been an offside call. “The most important thing is those three points (for Finland), and it’s all that matters when our team’s winning.”
With patriotic Soviet songs playing in the arena to mark the anniversary of beating the Nazis in the Second World War, Canada got two goals from Ryan O’Reilly, one of them while short-handed.
“It was a competitive game, especially early on,” Canada coach Bill Peters said. “That short-handed goal was a bit of a game-changer. They were very competitive and in the end, our depth is what wore them down.”
Cam Talbot faced only 13 shots for Canada’s first shutout of the championship.
The Czech Republic leads the Moscow group after beating Sweden 4-2 on two goals and an assist from Michal Birner.
Sweden was 2-0 up after the first before the Czechs scored four straight goals to take the win despite being outshot 29-20 overall.
Host Russia is second after beating Latvia 4-0 on two goals and two assists from forward Artemi Panarin, who bounced back after he was pulled from Sunday’s game against Kazakhstan following a hard collision into the boards.
Defenseman Alexei Yemelin faces a minimum one-game suspension after he was ejected for a knee on Miks Indrasis.
Russia is 2-1 after an opening 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic and the tricky 6-4 win over Kazakhstan.
Finland hands US 2nd loss at ice hockey worlds
Finland hands US 2nd loss at ice hockey worlds
Teams on edge as F1 reset faces litmus test in Australia
- Formula One’s new era faces first test in Melbourne
MELBOURNE: Formula One’s new era starts at this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, where teams will leap into the unknown and grapple with sweeping technical changes under race conditions for the first time.
F1 has simultaneously overhauled chassis and power unit regulations for the first time in decades, posing a challenge for drivers and engineers alike while raising concerns about the quality of racing.
With near-parity between electrical and combustion engines and cars running on 100 percent advanced sustainable fuel, drivers gained some insight into the changes during winter testing. But all are in the dark about how the reset will play out when going wheel-to-wheel on race-day.
“I’m certainly more comfortable now than I was a couple of months ago, with how to drive these cars and how to try and get the most out of them,” McLaren’s Oscar Piastri told reporters on Wednesday.
“But I think there’s still the saying of, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’”
Australian Piastri said McLaren thought they had the cars worked out two months ago, only to find they had “a whole bunch of stuff” they did not understand during winter testing.
With more power generated by electricity than last year’s engines, there is more emphasis on drivers needing to be tactical with energy deployment and regeneration.
The old drag reduction system has been replaced by a new overtake mode giving extra power for overtaking.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen described the changes as “like Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing.”
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali defended them and assured fans there will still be plenty of thrills.
‘Unnatural’ driving
The changes may have different effects at different circuits, leaving all teams to learn on the fly, week by week.
Piastri said Sunday’s race at Albert Park would probably showcase the more “unnatural” parts of driving.
“You know, a lot more lift and coast, a lot more kind of just driving to maximize the power unit,” he said.
“You’ve got power units that are reducing in power down the straights at different points. And there’s a lot of unknowns, a lot of challenges in there.”
The new regulations raised hopes of a more open championship and the prospect of a disruptor team emerging to force change at the top.
But pre-season testing in Bahrain hinted at a familiar top four, with Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren all performing.
Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley said the gap between the “best and the rest” might only widen.
“I think it’s going to be a very different year in terms of the competitiveness in the sport,” he told Reuters. “We’re already seeing the gap between the fastest teams and the slowest teams, but larger than it’s been in the last few years.”
Whatever the pecking order, F1 race tracks will be more crowded with the addition of the new Cadillac team although there may be more breathing room at Albert Park given Aston Martin’s pre-season troubles.
Despite the technical guidance of Adrian Newey, who joined from Red Bull, the Honda-powered team completed few laps during winter testing and have reliability problems.
The AMR26 cars will be in Australia — something of a relief for F1 management — but may only race for a few laps before retiring.
