U.S. men's hockey shoots down Kazakhstan 4-1

TURIN, Italy -- Rick DiPietro reached for the water bottle after one save and less than 30 seconds of action.

It didn't take long for the pressure to ease on the U.S. goalie and his teammates in a 4-1 victory Thursday night over Kazakhstan.

DiPietro, dressed in stars-and-stripes pads and a mask that bears the image of the helicopter his father piloted in the Vietnam War, needed to make only 11 saves in his successful Olympic debut.

"Obviously, you're going to have jitters the first time you play in this event, but at the end of the day, it's still the same game," the New York Islanders goaltender said.

The difference was in the result.

The U.S. (1-0-1) used three first-period goals to move into second place in Group B with three points, behind Slovakia -- the Americans' next opponent and the only 2-0 team in the six-squad bunch.

It didn't take long for the U.S. to shake off any remaining jet lag and the disappointment of its 3-3 tie with Latvia in Wednesday's opener. The Americans quickly established dominance over a team that fielded only two NHL players.

"I loved how we skated and were in position," forward Doug Weight said. "We played better as a team. We should've had a lot more goals."

Anything but a victory would have made the chances of advancing to the quarterfinals near impossible as the Americans still have their three toughest matchups ahead of them in a four-day span beginning Saturday.

"Against Slovakia, we're going to have to be on top of our game," Brian Rolston said.

Kazakhstan, outshot 36-12, has been outscored 11-3 in its two losses.

The Americans peppered goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik, who has been in the minor leagues since a seven-game stint with Colorado in December. He faced 17 shots in the first period and gave up power-play goals to Rolston and Brian Gionta along with an even-strength score by Bill Guerin that made it 1-0 just 1:34 in.

Mike Modano made it 4-1 at 11:53 of the third, 51 seconds after Yevgeniy Koreshkov scored for Kazakhstan on its first third-period shot.

DiPietro turned aside five shots in the first period -- only one of which came from in close as the Americans dominated.

Rolston was the fourth forward on the Americans' power-play unit, serving a role he fills with the Minnesota Wild. That also helped take the load off the U.S. defense, down to six players for the second straight game as New Jersey's Brian Rafalski sat out with an injury believed to be to his midsection.

Kazakhstan couldn't muster any kind of counterattack. Unlike Wednesday against Latvia with John Grahame in goal, the Americans didn't have to fear every mistake turning into an odd-man rush the other way.

Even when there was a breakdown, the threat was minimal. Aryom Argokov had a second-period breakaway but then shot high over the net. Later, DiPietro fell down while the puck was in his zone and still didn't have to scramble back into position.

Kazakhstan didn't register a shot in the middle period until 13:09 elapsed. By then, the shot tally was 26-6.