Rivals Join Forces to Lead U.S.

Scott Drevitch plays for the Blades. Joe Cook, an original Bullfrog, retired this week. Normally, you couldn’t get those two rivals into the same room, let alone on the same team.

Yet Thursday night, their teams’ Roller Hockey International rivalry aside, the defensemen got the United States off to a good start against surprising Switzerland in the opening round of the In-line Hockey World Championship.

Cook and Drevitch each had four goals and four assists, as the U.S. team cruised to an 11-6 victory before an estimated crowd of 300 at Disney Ice.

Drevitch and Cook worked well together, producing some of the most crisp passing of the tournament.

“I like playing with Drevie,” Cook said. “He skates a lot like I do because he pushed the puck up the floor. I like playing with another defender that likes to score.”

Cook, skating himself back into shape after suffering an RHI career-ending concussion three weeks ago with the Bullfrogs, started the scoring four minutes into the first quarter. Drevitch assisted the goal. One and one-half minutes later, he took a pass from Cook and scored for a 2-1 U.S. lead.

Drevitch fed Cook for a 30-foot slap shot and a 3-1 lead with 4:44 left in the first quarter. The United States went on to take a 9-4 third-quarter lead.

“I know all about the rivalry between the [RHI] teams,” Drevitch said. “It’s an honor playing for the USA. We’re all from the same place and you can’t take those grudges with you. When it’s all over, we’ll resume that rivalry.”

It wasn’t all the United States, though. The Swiss hung on doggedly and when defenseman Roger Sigg scored on a power play with 4:47 to go, they trailed by only three goals.

But the U.S. offense countered on a power-play goal by former Oklahoma Coyote Joe Burton and a goal by Jeff Nelson, a Chicago stock broker, for breathing room.

The United States plays Russia at 7:30 tonight.

In other games:

Canada 10, Finland 4--Both teams are expected to challenge for a medal, but the margin of victory in this early showdown was surprising. Canada broke a 1-1 tie with five unanswered goals in the first half and never looked back, outshooting the Finns, 41-29. The Canadians were five of seven on the power play.

Blades winger Doug Ast scored four goals and had three assists. Bullfrog defenseman Doug McCarthy and Sacramento River Rat Gerry St. Cyr each had two goals and an assist.

Russia 6, Germany 5--This was somewhat of a stunner because the German team features many ice hockey players from their elite national league. Germany held leads of 3-1 and 4-2 in the second half but tired. Defenseman Dmitry Astakhov got the game-winner on a slap shot with 3:24 left.

Australia 9, Japan 3--Pekka Uusi-Hakima had a hat trick for Australia.

Czech Republic 10, Austria 5--The Czech Republic dominated this game between teams not expected to challenge for a medal.

Italy 6, The Netherlands 4--Italy, a dark horse, was clinging to a 4-3 lead when it pushed across two goals in the final quarter.