In the first full day of men's hockey in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russia, Canada and the USA all overcome some slight scares on their way to convincing wins on Thursday.
Men's Teemu Selanne injured in Finland's 8-4 win over Austria
Michael Grabner scored a hat trick for Austria but it wasn't enough to beat an overwhelming Finnish team on Thursday. Austria would led the game 2-1 with scores on two of their first three shots of the game, until Finland seemingly woke up with two goals within eight seconds to turn a close contest into a farce. Six separate players scored for Finland on 52 shots, with Jarkko Immonen and Mikael Granlund each scoring twice in the contest.
Teemu Selanne played just 5:27 before leaving with an upper body injury, but he's not expected to miss any games moving forward. Finland will next Norway on Friday. USA dominant in 7-1 rout of Slovakia
Like Finland and Russia, Team USA survived a bit of a slow start to completely dominate Slovakia thanks to a six-goal outburst in the second period. Slovakia's Tomas Tatar tied the game 1-1 less than 30 seconds into the second period, until the Americans took control of the game with an endless onslaught of speed and skill. Paul Statsny scored twice while Phil Kessel recorded a goal and two assists in what was an impressive win over what was expected to be a solid Slovakian team.
Slovakia's Jaroslav Halak, thought to be the team's biggest strength, was chased after allowing five goals on 25 shots. The USA's Jonathan Quick stopped 22 of 23 shots in the game, but Ryan Miller is expected to be in net on Saturday against Russia. Russia overcomes scare, beats Slovenia 5-2
Alex Ovechkin scored just 1:17 into the game to give Russia an early lead and spark a bullrush of offense against Slovenia, then learned just how dangerous it can be to relax in the Olympics. Ziga Jeglic scored twice in the second period as Slovenia held Russia to just two shots in the middle frame, to pull to within 3-2 and seize the momentum heading into the third period.
18-year old Valeri Nichushkin would give the Russians a two-goal lead less than four minutes into the third period, and Slovenia never truly threatened after that. Robert Kristan had 30 saves on 35 shots for Slovenia, while Semyon Varlamov stopped just 12 of 14 shots in the Russian net. Canada survives slow start in 3-1 win over Norway
It might have taken just over 26 minutes for Canada to finally get on the scoreboard, but once the Olympics favorite woke up it was a near-dominant performance in a win over Norway that wasn't as close as the score would suggest. Shea Weber and Jamie Benn both scored in the second period, with Canada hold Norway to just two shots in the frame to seize control of the game.
Norway would make things briefly interesting in the third period with an early goal by Patrick Thoresen, but Drew Doughty would respond just over a minute later to restore the two-goal lead for Canada. Lars Haugen had 35 saves on 38 shots as Canada controlled play for most of the second and third period. Women's Japan falls to Germany, 4-0
Viona Harrer had the shutout for Germany as both teams will look for better fortune in the classification round of the women's tournament. Japan had a good push to start the third period down just two goals, but eventually succumbed to two late goals in the final two minutes of regulation. Russia tops Sweden, 3-1
Anna Shukina and Alyona Khomich scored for Russia on Thursday in a 2-1 win over Sweden to finish up preliminary round play. Sweden would pull to within 2-1 thanks to a late goal by Pernilla Winberg late in the second period, but it proved not enough as Russia outshot Sweden 30-16 in the game.
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