MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Norway blanked Italy 3-0 and Germany prevailed in a shootout to beat Kazakhstan 2-1 in their first games at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.
Thomas Oppenheimer scored the decisive goal in the shootout to give Germany the win.
Germany outshot its opponent 47-20 but Kazakhstan went ahead 1-0 after a goal from Andrei Gavrilin. The Germans answered through Matthias Plachta at the end of the first period.
Niklas Roest opened the scoring in the first period for Norway, Morten Ask made it 2-0 midway through the game and captain Anders Bastiansen rounded off the victory on a breakaway in the third.
Goaltender Lars Haugen made 15 saves for the shutout, but needed help from his posts on two shots by defenseman Daniel Sullivan in the second.
