Goals from Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Perezhogin gave Russia a 2-0 victory over fierce rival the Czech Republic at the world hockey championships on Sunday.
It was a sixth win out of six for Russia, which is three points clear at top of Group B and cannot be caught in the final round of games.
The winner of Germany's match with Norway later Sunday can close in on the second-placed Swedes and third-placed Czechs in the leaderboard.
Russia opened the scoring with its first attack of the match when Perezhogin picked up Ilya Nikulin's pass while behind the Czech goal and skated round to score past Jakub Kovar after just 24 seconds.
Pittsburgh Penguins center Malkin scored Russia's second goal on a power play after a rebound from Alexander Popov in the first minute of the third period.
The Czechs attacked strongly after Perezhogin's opener but were unable to beat Russian goaltender Konstantin Barulin, who stopped 14 shots in the first period, including good chances for Lukas Kaspar and Petr Prucha.
The frame of the goal saved Russia on 11 minutes after Czech forward Petr Tenkrat fired in a dangerous shot.
Russian forward Alexei Tereshchenko fell to the ice after receiving a hit in the groin from Petr Nedved, but the Czech center received no punishment.
Russia briefly went five on three at the end of the second period after Czech forward Martin Erat and defenseman Lukas Krajicek received penalties for hooking and interference, respectively.
The Russians swarmed forward but were unable to take advantage, with the best chance coming when forward Sergei Shirokov had his shot blocked by Czech goaltender Jakub Kovar.
In their other games, the Russians have beaten Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Latvia.
Russia will face Italy on Monday, while the Czechs can secure qualification for the quarterfinals when they play Germany on Tuesday.
