Russia battle past Czechs, Canada stays unbeaten

By Steve Keating

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - Alexei Morozov fired the overtime winner to lift Russia to a 5-4 victory over the Czech Republic at the world championships on Sunday, adding another line to one of ice hockey's most intense rivalries.

After Atlanta Thrashers' prolific Ilya Kovalchuk missed a penalty shot 30 seconds into the extra session, Morozov settled the ill-tempered contest when he took a drop pass from Sergei Zinoviev and snapped a wrist-shot past netminder Milan Hnilicka.

The win improved Russia's record to 2-0 and put them top the Group D standings.

"They (Russia) are very greedy," said New Jersey Devils' Patrik Elias who scored a hat-trick for the Czechs. "You can never under-estimate their power.

"They played as a team. They played very tough hockey today."

While the Russians and Czechs engaged in a bruising battle, Latvia meekly surrendered 7-0 to defending champions Canada, who also improved to 2-0 and posted their 11th straight win to lead Group B.

FOURTH GOAL

Ottawa Senators' Dany Heatley, who had a hat-trick in Canada's opening win, notched his fourth goal and added three assists to replace NHL great and Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman as the country's all-time leading scorer at the world championships with 40 points.

"The way this tournament is set up, we don't know much about them and I think it's good we focus on our game and what we want to do," Heatley told reporters. "The score was lopsided tonight but they battled right to the end.

"We can always improve. There have been points in both games where we thought we could played a little bit better but overall we've got what we wanted; two wins."

Canada scored three times in the opening 12 minutes and led 7-0 after two periods before easing off in the third.

Rick Nash contributed two goals to the win while Patrick Sharp, Mike Green, Chris Kunitz and Martin St Louis all tallied once.

Pascal Leclaire stopped all 30 shots he faced for the shutout.

In Quebec City, there was no easing off in a contest that featured four lead changes and several skirmishes, including one that knocked Russia goaltender Alexander Eremenko out of the game in the second period after he injured his leg in a pileup.

Morozov also scored in regulation while Konstantin Gorovikov, Kostantin Korneyev and Zinoviev each tallied once for Russia.