Russia loses for 2nd time in 2 days at worlds

HELSINKI (AP)—Reigning champion Russia lost for the second time in two days at the ice hockey world championships, going down 3-2 to Finland on Friday due largely to goalie Antti Raanta’s 34 saves.

Canada beat Belarus 4-1 in Stockholm to move top of their group, two points ahead of Switzerland, which has played one game fewer.

Finland’s Petri Kontiola scored at 3:22 and 17:21 in the first period against Russia. He has five goals and four assists in five games. Juhamatti Aaltonen made it 3-1 on a power play at 16 minutes in the second period, on an assist by Janne Pesonen

Raanta was dominant after the Russians drew to within a goal when star forward Ilya Kovalchuk scored at 1:48 in the second period with his team’s goalie pulled.

Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk was ejected with a couple of seconds remaining after knocking down Pesonen with a right hook. On Thursday, Russia was beaten 2-1 by France in the biggest upset of the tournament.

“Our start to the tournament felt sticky, we were not satisfied,” Kontiola said. “Now we played a good game, it is good to go on after this.” Finland has a 4-1 record.

Canada outshot Belarus, which will host next year’s worlds, 37-10 and scored through Ryan O’Reilly Andrew Ladd Claude Giroux and Steven Stamkos Giroux also had two assists, while Ladd and Stamkos had one each. Defenseman Jeff Schultz assisted on the second and third goals.

Bernhard Starkbaum made 42 saves before stopping all 3 shots in the shootout, and Austria beat 2012 runner-up Slovakia 2-1 earlier Friday.

Austria’s Thomas Vanek was the only player to score in a shootout ended by Starkbaum’s save to deny Miroslav Satan. Slovakia, France, Austria and Germany can all advance to the playoffs in Helsinki.

In Stockholm, Zbynek Michalek and Jiri Novotny scored on power plays in the third period and the Czech Republic beat Slovenia 4-2.

Jiri Hudler also found the net on a power play for the Czechs, tying the game at 2-2 in the second period with his fourth goal in five games.

Czech goalie Ondrej Pavelec played for the second time and made 23 saves.