HELSINKI, May 12 (R-Sport) – Russia returned to winning ways at the world hockey championships on Sunday, beating Slovakia 3-1 to end a run of two defeats.
Russia stays third in the Helsinki preliminary round group and is already assured of a playoff place, while Slovakia is on the brink in fourth and could easily fail to progress unless it beats the United States on Tuesday.
Alexander Radulov went 1+1 on the way to the victory, which followed surprise losses to France and Finland, while Ilya Kovalchuk’s seventh goal means he leads the tournament on goalscoring.
The game was a repeat of last year’s world final in the same arena, which Russia won 6-2.
