Few surprises emerged during the first day of competition at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa. Russia beat Latvia in the opening contest, 4 - 1, with Russian outshooting Latvia 44 - 15. Perhaps the only surprise in that game was that the Russian top line, Nikita Filatov, Evgeni Grachev, and Dmitri Kugryshev, was held scoreless, despite creating numerous chances.
In the 3:30 contest, the US had no trouble with Germany, prevailing 8 - 2 behind 2 goal performances from both Drayson Bowman and James van Riemsdyk. The USA amassed 46 shots on goal against the beleaguered German squad.
In other action, Sweden started off with a 3 - 1 victory over Finland. In progress at the moment, the favored Canadian team is having no difficulty with the Czech Republic, leading 5 -0 after two periods of play.
