Winter Olympics: Russians maintain clean slate in men’s ice hockey

Beijing: Just because the Russians won their first two games at the Olympics with a couple of shutouts doesn’t mean they’re happy about it.

The defending champions and gold medal favourites in the men’s hockey tournament have scored just twice against an opposing goaltender. Their 2-0 victory Friday against overmatched Denmark featured an empty-netter and a concerning lack of offense from a team that should have no trouble scoring.

‘‘We won two games, but I am not happy how we play offensively,’’ coach Alexei Zhamnov said. ‘‘We’re not controlling the puck, we don’t have traffic in front of the net and too much play around. That’s why maybe we don’t score so many goals. Next games is going to be tougher because teams are going to be better and better, so we have to be ready for this.’’

The Russians wrap up the preliminary round Sunday against the Czech Republic and will be one of the top seeds in the knockout round if they win that game in regulation. The Czechs are certainly a step up in difficulty level from Switzerland, which the Russians beat 1-0 Wednesday, and Denmark, so the faster the goals materialize the better.

Forward Stan Galiev said he and his teammates need to manage the puck better and make it more difficult on opposing goaltenders to generate more quality scoring chances.

The Russians - competing as ROC, short for Russian Olympic Committee, because of a massive state-sponsored doping operation during the 2014 Games - are averaging more than 30 shots a game. Forward Mikhail Grigorenko said the power play, which is 0 for 8 so far, needs to get going, while his coach wants to see better effort.

“We want to make sure our forwards start working in offensive zone because defensively we play good, but offensively we not start good playing,” Zhamnov said. ``Our forwards have to be better in offensive zone if you want to win games in the future.’’

The US and Canada, meanwhile, renew their rivalry Saturday. Each team won their opener: the Americans 8-0 against China and Canadians 5-1 against Germany.

In women’s action, defending Olympic champions the United States beat Czech Republic 4-1 in a tougher-than-expected women’s ice hockey quarter-final.

Czech forward Michaela Pejzlova drew first blood five minutes into the second period to wake up a furious American team who retaliated 48 seconds later when four-time Olympian Hilary Knight knocked a rebound into the net.

The Czechs had a chance to regain the momentum after officials sent U.S. forward Dani Cameranesi to the penalty box for five minutes on a boarding call but could not break through the American defences.