Down goes Russia!

by Brandt Corbin

Germany upsets Russia

            The Russians didn’t waist much time to lay an egg. In the opening game of the 2011 World Ice Hockey Championships, Russia got shutout by Germany 2-0. Some of you will assume they outshot Germany badly, but that was not the case, in the last two periods Germany outshot the Russians 23-13. It was the first time in 33 years that Germany had beaten the Russians, and its obviously the start they were looking for. “Our players executed the game plan perfectly and we had good goaltending,” said German head coach Uwe Krupp. Germany now faces another tough test against Slovakia, if they win that game they are almost guarantee themselves the top seed in pool 4.

Canada solid against Belarus

            Goaltender James Reimer was solid for Canada, as he stared in the teams 4-1 win against Belarus. Aside from Reimer, Canada’s best player was little-known Mario Scalzo, who had two assists in the opener. The Canadians today added four players, forward James Neal, goaltender Jonathan Bernier, and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo and Marc-Andre Graganani. They now move on to play France on Sunday, but on Tuesday will have a bigger test in Switzeland.

Switzerland comes up with late win

            The Switz waited almost to long to get their first goal. They beat France 1-0 after Ivo Ruthemann scored 1:43 into overtime. It was a goaltending battle as Switzerland's Tobias Stephan stopped 31 shots for the shutout. Former Canadiens, Capitals and Black Hawk Christbal Huet provided France possibly a huge point depending on how they play against Belarus Tuesday? Huet’s biggest save came with 13 minutes left in the third period as he absolutely denied Andres Ambuhl.

Next big upset?

             Despite no Thomas Vanek (due to injury) does Austria have enough to pull an upset over the Americans? Oliver Setzinger and Darcy Werenka need to come up large if this were to occur. But as noted in the preview of the tournament, the USA is not overloaded with offensive ability, so one absolutely key is the specialty teams. Austria will get 4-5 chances on the powerplay and they need to make it count. I’m not going to lay down a bet on this one, but I’ll say 4-2 Austria, mainly because they’ll go 2-5 on the PP, with 1 empty netter.