News of the Colorado Avalanche - Links around the NHL - May 10th, 2013

France beats Russia at the IIHF World Championship.

Damien Fleury and Antoine Roussel scored second-period goals and Florian Hardy stopped 28 shots as France recorded a 2-1 upset victory over Russia on Friday at the 2013 IIHF World Championship in a game played at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.

The French players celebrated in jubilant fashion on the ice after the game ended. It was the country's first win in six tries against Russia at the Worlds since 1992.

"It's fantastic to beat the defending champions and the best players in the world," French coach Dave Henderson told the IIHF website. "It's so big for French hockey it's hard to describe."

Canada beat Sweden 3-0.

“If not for their goalie, we would have won about seven or eight nothing, I think,” forward Matt Duchene said. “We had a great performance in goal by Smitty and we had a lot of chances.”

The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens.

The Ottawa Senators are moving on to the second round of NHL playoffs.

Craig Anderson made 33 saves and Cory Conacher scored twice on a shaky Peter Budaj as the Senators downed the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Thursday night.

Ottawa won the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final 4-1 and will move on to the second round for the first time since 2007, when they reached the Stanley Cup final only to fall to the Anaheim Ducks.