16.02 Grabner Stars as Austria Sinks Norway in Sochi Men's Hockey

SOCHI, February 15 (R-Sport) - Philadelphia Flyers wing Michael Grabner scored twice to help Austria clinch a rare victory in the Sochi Olympic hockey competition Sunday, beating Norway 3-1 as the teams battled to get a slightly kinder draw in the playoff for the quarterfinals.

The Austrians had shipped 14 goals in their first two games against Finland and Canada but were more competitive against lesser opposition in Norway at the Bolshoi Ice Dome.

After two defeats for each, neither team had a hope of qualifying directly for the quarterfinals before Sunday's game, which effectively served as a warm-up for Tuesday's playoffs, where the opponents for both are yet to be determined.

The NHLers did the business for Austria as Grabner added to his opening-game hat-trick with the opening goal on 04:27, and Michael Raffl made it two on a power-play just two minutes later.

Norway's Patrick Thoresen pulled one back on 28:05, but Grabner snuffed out any chances of a comeback with a third goal, his fifth of the competition to overtake Canada's Jeff Carter at the top of the Olympic scoring charts.

Finland plays defending champion Canada later Sunday in the game to determine the Group B winner and direct entrant into the quarterfinals.
Austria was pounded 8-4 by the Finns before losing 6-0 to Canada. Norway, whose only NHL player is Mats Zuccarello, pushed the Canadians harder, losing 3-1, and, but was thrashed 6-1 by Finland.