RIGA, May 26. /TASS/. The Russian national ice hockey team defeated Denmark 3-0 on Wednesday in their group stage encounter of the 2021 IIHF (the International Ice Hockey Federation) World Championship in Latvia.

The goals for the Russian team were scored by Ivan Morozov (40th minute), Alexander Barabanov (50th minute) and Dmitry Voronkov (57th minute).

Russian team’s goaltender Alexander Samonov booked a clean sheet registering 18-save shootout.

"At the moment we regard him as our number one," the official IIHF website quoted Russian team’s Head Coach Sergei Bragin as saying after the match. "He did well today, he tidied everything up. We hope he’ll carry on like that."

Danish goalkeeper Sebastian Dahm stopped 28 out of 31 Russia’s shot on the goal in today’s match.

Russia’s Morozov, who scored the opening goal, said after the game that "We got a good goal, the puck came to me and I scored."

Russia’s defenseman Ivan Provorov said speaking about the match against Denmark: "We knew it was going to be a tight game; those guys skate hard, check hard."

"We just played our game and waited for opportunities and then we had a few we were able to capitalize," the 2017 bronze medalist of the IIHF World Championships added.

Danish captain Jesper Jensen Aabo said after the match that: "It was pretty good two periods from our side what we can bring forward is our game without the puck."

"We had pretty good patience today but we need to create more scoring chances. That’s one of the most lacking things today," the 29-year-old Danish ice hockey player added.

The Russian national ice hockey team started this world championship with the victories over the Czech Republic (4-3) and Great Britain (7-1), but then suffered 1-3 defeat to Slovakia on Monday. Russia is now set to face the national team of Switzerland on May 29.

The 2021 Ice Hockey Championship is hosted by the Latvian capital of Riga between May 21 and June 6. The championship’s matches are played at two venues in Riga.

The main venue is the Arena Riga and it hosts Group B matches, two quarter-final games, the semi-final round and the medal round. The second venue is the Olympic Sports Centre, which has been converted into a 6,000-capacity ice rink and hosts Group A matches and two quarter-final games. All 16 participating teams are housed in one hotel and the tournament is organized in the so-called bubble mode.

The Russian national team has been placed in Group A alongside the national teams from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain. Group B lists the teams from Canada, Finland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.

According to last year’s ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Russian athletes are prohibited until December 2022 from participating in world championships and Olympic Games under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem.

Therefore, the Russian national ice hockey team is participating at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in Latvia wearing uniforms with the logo of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), a flame and the Olympic rings.

In mid-April, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the use of First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s musical composition for awarding ceremonies of Russian athletes at the Olympic Games in Japan this summer and the same musical piece is now played after the victories of the Russian ice hockey squad at the championship in Riga.