Russian streak continues at Worlds: Kovalchuk tied for team lead with five points in five games

Ilya Kovalchuk's line with Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin has Russia on a roll at the 2010 IIHF World Championship in Germany.

Led by Datsyuk's hat trick, the trio collected 10 points in Sunday's 6-1 win over Denmark. Kovalchuk, the Russian captain, tallied three assists and is tied with Alex Ovechkin for the team points lead with two goals and three assists in five games.

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Rinne, Finns advance at World Championship

John Glennon The Tennessean May 17, 2010

Preds goa­lie Pekka Rinne appears to be back in strong form at The World Cham­pionship in Germany.

Rinne lost his first game of the tour­na­ment, as Den­mark beat Fin­land 4-1 in the teams’ ope­ner. But he’s reboun­ded to win his last two games, and now has a 2-1 record, along with a 1.67 goals against ave­rage and a .921 save per­cen­tage. Rinne stop­ped 25-of-27 shots on Mon­day, as Fin­land beat Slo­va­kia 5-2 and clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.

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Latvia Is Rocking, Kaspars Daugavins Scores Twice In 5-2 Win Over Italy

Latvia yea, Italy nay
Daugavins scores pair, Italian offence falls short again
IHF May 12, 2010

Riga is rocking tonight. For the third straight year, Latvia cracked the Qualification Round with a 5-2 win over Italy on Wednesday. The Italians, meanwhile, now face a tough battle to avoid getting relegated again, as they were in 2008.

Defenceman Arvids Rekis got the winner for Latvia early in the third period, and Ottawa Senators prospect Kaspars Daugavins paced the attack with two goals.

Latvian starter Edgars Masalskis earned his first victory of the 2010 IIHF World Championship, outduelling Italy's Adam Russo. Latvia outshot Italy 38-26.

"They played aggressive hockey, Canadian-style," said Daugavins of the Italians. "It was hard to play. We were waiting for their mistakes. They play you one-on-one, so that means if you beat your man, you’re going to get a scoring chance. We crashed the net and got to the puck."

In the Qualification Round, Latvia will aim to secure its fourth quarterfinal berth of all time. The previous ones came in 1997, 2004, and 2009, all of which led to seventh-place finishes.

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Mattias Weinhandl Hat Tricks In 5-2 Win Over Norway

Sweden 5 – Norway 2 : Hat Trick Weinhandl In Border War
Go Iron Pigs May 12, 2010

SWEDEN, powered by three goals from Dynamo Moscow forward MATTIAS WEINHANDL, snapped a tie early in the third period to finish 5-2 victors over pesky Scandanavian neighbors NORWAY at the World Championships in Germany.

Weinhandl, who played 182 games (19 go 37 as, 56 pts, 70 pim) for the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild over parts of four seasons, and 19-year-old defenseman ERIK LARSSON of the Ottawa Senators handed Sweden a 2-0 lead with first period goals; Larsson’s seeing-eye shot from the point was his first at a senior international tournament.

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Ilya, the captain

Ilya, the captain
The 'C' on his chest marks Kovalchuk a true leader
IHF May 11, 2010

He scored the game winner in the 2008 World Championship final in Quebec City, and in 2009, when Russia defended their title, he averaged most ice time on the team. Sounds like a player who’s got what it takes, right? The ability to deliver in a crunch situation and the willingness to work hard, and lead by example. Also, he seems to have earned the coach’s trust.

So when Alexei Morozov couldn’t make the World Championship due to an injury, it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to see coach Vyacheslav Bykov name Ilya Kovalchuk the team captain.

It wasn’t one to his teammates.

“I wasn’t surprised, he’s one of our best players, our leader, and in the absence of Morozov, he was a natural choice,” says defenceman Denis Grebeshkov.

For Kovalchuk, wearing the ‘C’ on his chest wasn’t anything completely foreign, after all, he was the captain of the Atlanta Thrashers his last year with the team. He first served as one of five alternate captains until the alternates collectively requested to general manager Don Waddell and coach John Anderson for Kovalchuk to take over the captaincy.

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