U.S. blanked by Olympic Athletes from Russia in 4-0 loss

Ilya Kovalchuk scored two back-breaking goals as the Russians outplayed, outhit and outclassed the United States in a convincing 4-0 shutout Saturday night as each team wrapped up pool play at the Olympics.

With the loss, the United States is guaranteed to have to play in the qualification round Tuesday. U.S. goaltender Ryan Zapolski allowed four goals on 26 shots, including Kovalchuk's goals less than 33 seconds apart at the end of the second period and start of the third.

Los Angeles Kings 2012 draft pick Nikolai Prokhorkin scored the Russians' first two goals in a team-wide dominant performance.

As close as the shots on goal were, the U.S. rarely generated the quality scoring chances against Vasily Koshechkin the Russians did around Zapolski, who played all three preliminary-round games.