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Visnovsky: Shootout winner

Canada became the first team to book a place in the quarter-finals with a 10-1 drubbing of Germany at the World Ice Hockey Championship on Saturday.

Eric Staal scored four goals, with Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Patrick Sharp, Derek Roy and Mike Green also putting their names on the scorecard.

"We were just trying to get Staal as many goals as possible," explained Roy. We said he was on pace for six.

"We were just trying to feed him in the third period, he had the hot stick going. He's a great player."

German coach Uwe Krupp added: "Our team was outmatched in just about every aspect of the game.

"It was a sobering experience for everybody. Thank God you don't have too many days like this."

Canada will face Finland on Monday with the top seed in the quarter-finals at stake.

A 4-3 victory over Slovenia on Saturday saw Slovakia retain their place in the International Ice Hockey Federation's top flight.

Winner

Slovakian defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky scored the shootout winner in Halifax, Nova Scotia to win their relegation round series.

The result condemned Slovenia to division one after they had earlier been beaten 5-1 by the 2002 world champions in the opening match of the best of three series

They will be joined in division one next season by Italy who suffered a 6-4 defeat at the hands of France.

Alexander Ovechkin led Russia to a 3-2 comeback win over Sweden scoring with six seconds left in the third period, while the Czech Republic beat Belarus 3-2 in a shootout.

Belarus was eliminated from the medal round, but earned an important point.

A win over Denmark on Monday would give them a shot at 9th place in the tournament and an automatic place in the 2010 Winter Olympics.