Canada got their revenge over Norway at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, defeating them 4-0 on Sunday afternoon (9 March) in ice sledge hockey action at Shayba Arena. In their first meeting at the Paralympic Games since Norway's upset of Canada in Vancouver 2010's bronze-medal game, Canada came out firing on Norwegian goaltender Kristian Buen. For the second day in a row, defenceman Adam Dixon and forward Anthony Gale were the story offensively for Canada. Dixon notched his tournament-leading third and fourth goals, while Gale added a pair of assists. Kevin Rempel and Dominic Larocque also contributed with two points. Rempel, Dixon and Gale are all tied for the tournament lead in scoring with six points. "I think I am playing a similar game as I played in Vancouver and in the past four years," Dixon said on his offensive success. "I chip in on offence, I think part of my role on the team is to rush into the zone. I'm getting a little lucky right now and being very successful at that." Buen ended the game by making some nice saves and finished with 19 in total. Corbin Watson made six saves to record the shutout in net for the Canadians. With two wins, Canada sit atop the Group A standings, while Norway's loss puts them in third place with two points. For the second straight game, Czech Republic went all the way to a shoot-out, but this time came out on top, defeating Sweden 2-1 in Group A's other game on Day 2. In the third round of the shoot-out, forward Zdenek Krupicka beat Swedish goaltender Ulf Nilsson to score the lone goal and win it for the Czechs. "I was confident, we had practiced these many times in training," Krupicka said on his game-winning goal. "I knew exactly where I was going to put the puck. I just waited for the goalie to make his move and put it behind his back." After a scoreless first two periods, David Palat scored unassisted at 6:12 of the third period to give Czech Republic the 1-0 lead. Just over four minutes later, Sweden would answer with Marcus Holm notching his first Sochi 2014 goal to tie things up. Michal Vapenka made eight saves for the win while Nilsson made 20 saves in the loss. The USA improved to 2-0 in tournament play with a 3-0 win over South Korea in Group B. Adam Page had a two-goal game for the Americans to lead the charge offensively. The Americans started their scoring just 57 seconds into the game with a goal by defenceman Taylor Chace that beat goaltender Man-Gyun Yu. South Korea generated some good scoring chances throughout the game, including some mad scrambles in front of USA goaltender Steve Cash. Cash, however, shut the door, and his shutout streak at the Paralympic Winter Games has now exceeded 300 minutes. In the final game of Day 2 at Shayba Arena, Russia dominated Italy, winning 7-0. On the strength of a four-goal second period, Russia had their home fans cheering loud all game long. Andrey Dvinyaninov recorded a hat-trick, scoring twice in a six-minute span in the second period including one that took a funny bounce and beat Italian goaltender Santino Stillitano. Russia improved to four points in the standings with the win and moved into second place in the Group B standings. Italy remain pointless in the tournament and are still in search for their first victory. Monday (10 March) will mark an off-day in ice sledge hockey, but a full schedule will resume on Tuesday (11 March) with the final four preliminary round games.

• published: 09 Mar 2014
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