Russia scored a nervy 2-0 win over Germany in the hockey world championships in Stockholm on Tuesday, with goals from Nikolai Zherdev and Alexei Tereshchenko handing the Russians their third-straight victory of the tournament.
Russia's first shutout win sees them join co-host Sweden at the top of Group B with a maximum nine points after beating Latvia 5-2 and Norway 4-2.
As in the previous two games, it was anything but straightforward for the one of the main tournament favorites.
Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Perezhogin laid siege to the German goal early on but Kazakh-born goaltender Dimitri Kotschnew was on hand to deflect their efforts away.
Then, discipline failed the Russians, who were forced to defend for much of the first period as Malkin and Zherdev, formerly of the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers, left the ice for boarding and tripping.
Tereshchenko then fired directly at Kotschnew before Christoph Schubert forced a reflex save out of Russian goaltender Semyon Varlamov.
With the Russians just nine seconds away from taking their first-period dry run into a third-successive match, Zherdev popped up to redirect a slap shot from way out left by Evgeny Medvedev past a helpless Kotschnew.
The Germans put together a dangerous move with Nikolai Goc off the ice for hooking, as Marcus Kink sped down the left to feed the Goc's brother and Florida Panther Marcel, but the latter arrived a split-second too late to make a telling connection.
Malkin danced through the German defenses moments later but couldn't generate enough angle on the final shot to trouble Kotschnew.
Germany continued to cause Russia problems as Kink was a whisker away from burying a deflection off goaltender Varlamov.
Tereshchenko, of Ak Bars Kazan, whipped a shot in from the left that Kotschnew got a hand to.
Three minutes into the third period, Malkin was forced into emergency defending, clearing a shot off his own line with Varlamov down after having saved a shot by Kevin Lavellee.
Defenseman Sinan Akdag fired wide with Russia at sea in defense half way through the third period.
Tereshchenko finished off a lightning-quick play to settle the Russians' nerves eight minutes from time, hitting a one-timer past Kotschnew after Medvedev fed Sergei Shirokov for the assist.
Varlamov then saved Russia from a nail-biting last two minutes, stretching back across his goal whilst down the splits to catch a missile from defenseman Christopher Fischer.
Earlier Tuesday in Russia's Group B, Latvia registered its second victory of the tournament with a 5-0 thrashing of Italy.
In Group A, led by Canada, Belarus edged Kazakhstan 3-2.
Russia next play Denmark on Thursday before facing Sweden, the Czech Republic and Italy. The top four of the eight teams in the group go through to the quarterfinals.
