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MINSK, Belarus -- From a disallowed goal to a penalty kill in the final minutes, Team Canada didnt enjoy a lot of easy moments in beating Norway 3-2. But thats exactly how coach Dave Tippett wanted it, as his team got the regulation victory it needed Tuesday to finish first in Group A at the world hockey championship. "We played well, and I like that we got pushed right to the end," Tippett said. "If it wouldve been a 5-1 or 6-1 game, maybe you get into bad habits, you just kind of float through it. This pushed us as a team, and the harder you get pushed as a team the better you get in a short amount of time. I like the fact that we won the game, obviously, but I like the fact that it was a close game." It was close because Norway took the lead, and then Canada had a would-be goal by Kevin Bieksa waved off for goaltender interference because Jonathan Huberdeau had his stick in the crease. And it remained close even after Joel Ward scored the second of his two goals, the eventual game winner, midway through the third because Norway didnt go away. Canada outshot Norway 42-16 and only beat goaltender Steffen Soberg three times, on Wards two on the power play and Mark Scheifeles at even strength. Meanwhile, James Reimer gave up goals to Anders Bastiansen and Mads Hansen that came about from defensive miscues but still improved to 3-0-1 in the tournament. "This is one of those games where you really just have to grind it out and battle because they protect so well, they collapse so well, and sometimes you just pass the puck around the outside but you cant really get to the good scoring areas," Reimer said. "I think were just happy to grind this one out." Canada, which finished the preliminary round with 18 points and a 6-0-1 record, will face Finland in Group B in the quarter-final round Thursday. Along the way, the Canadians outscored opponents 28-13, and their only blemish was a shootout loss to France. Tippett seemed pleased with his teams progression to this point. "Most of our players didnt play for three weeks and as you get back into game shape, your game starts to elevate," he said. "Every game our players continue to pick up a step." Finishing first in the group assured Canada of avoiding powerhouse Russia until a potential gold-medal game Sunday. The United States, led by Tyler Johnson and Seth Jones, could wind up on Canadas side of the bracket, pending the result of Russia-Belarus on Tuesday night. The chance to pass Sweden for first place almost slipped away Tuesday against Norway at Chizhovka-Arena. Canada fell behind on a power-play goal by Bastiansen and then had to overcome some frustration later in the first. It looked like Bieksa scored a power-play goal at the 15:01 mark, but it was waved off apparently because Huberdeau had his stick in the crease. Tippett said the referee wouldnt come over to explain the decision, which seemed to stem from the IIHF rule that an attacking player cannot have even his stick blade in the crease when the puck goes into the net. "I didnt think my skate was in the crease. I guess it was the stick," Huberdeau said. "I dont know the call, but it was the call and you cant do anything. Its not a big deal." It wouldve been a much bigger deal had it cost Canada the chance to win in regulation. But with seven power plays, including five after Bieksas goal was disallowed, there were plenty of opportunities to keep it from being the reason for a loss. "We were not going to let one call ruin the whole day for us," said Ward, who now has six goals and is tied with teammate Cody Hodgson and Frances Antoine Roussel for second in the tournament behind Russias Viktor Tikhonov. Canada managed to grind away at Norway enough, and Tippett had special praise for the fourth line of Ward, Scheifele and Sean Monahan. "We had lots of opportunities, but (the Norwegians) kept the game very tight," Tippett said. "They did a good job penalty-killing against us, and I was proud of our guys to just keep pushing, not get frustrated and hopefully wed find the chances we needed to win." Once they did, the Canadians could start to look ahead to elimination play. "Get some playoffs going here," Reimer said. "To get going to the quarter-finals here, I think were jelling well as a team. We have some good chemistry. Hopefully things bode well in the playoffs." NOTES -- Alex Burrows missed his second straight game with a charley horse suffered in a knee-on-knee hit Friday against Italy. Tippett said he skated each of the past two days, would practise with the team the next time it was on the ice and would be ready to play in Thursdays quarter-final game. ... Reimer approached Soberg, who made 39 saves on 42 shots, after the game to ask why he wasnt playing in the NHL. Soberg was a 2011 fourth-round pick of the Washington Capitals and refused to come to North America to play for the WHLs Swift Current Broncos, opting instead to continue playing in Norway. The Capitals lost Sobergs rights last summer, making him an NHL free agent. Saucony Shoes Outlet Online .com) - The Vancouver Canucks will try to win two straight games for the first time since mid-January on Monday night as they play host to the struggling New York Islanders. Sale Saucony Shoes Outlet . - The Baltimore Ravens and tight end Dennis Pitta reached agreement on a five-year contract Friday. http://www.sauconyoutletonline.com/ . "Im proud of him," Jones said in an interview from Sacramento, site of the UFCs weekend televised card. "I think hes listening to his body and hes doing what makes him happy and thats what life is about ultimately. Cheap Saucony Shoes Outlet Free Shipping .S. international midfielder Michael Bradley is complete. Discount Saucony Shoes Outlet .com) - Ben Lovejoy tallied a goal and an assist as the Anaheim Ducks cruised into the All-Star break with a 6-3 victory against the Calgary Flames.The most overused word in sports is star. It should be reserved only for the deserving few, those who constantly brighten our horizons with their exploits, who dont wax, wane and flame out in a season or two and, most importantly, who dont cheat, dope, act like idiots and otherwise prove that sports are too quick to build pedestals for athletes.Lindsey Vonn is a bona fide star.In simple numerical terms, its hard to gauge the relative value of the Americans new record in Alpine skiing. Vonns 63rd win in World Cup ski racing, in Italy on Monday, moved her ahead of Annemarie Moser-Proell, the womens previous record-holder from Austria with 62 World Cup victories from 1970-1980.But with fewer races back then, Moser-Proell had fewer opportunities than Vonn to make her mark and she won more frequently and from a younger age than Vonn.The technology of skiing has changed, too. Perhaps not as drastically as in tennis, where Rod Lavers wooden rackets frustrate comparisons with Roger Federer. In winning gold at the 1980 Olympics, Moser-Proell sped downhill as fast as Vonn did 30 years later for her gold in Vancouver in 2010.Still, how would Vonn and Moser-Proell have fared against each other with the same boots and skis? The differing eras make that impossible to answer with certainty.Fairer to both, then, not to play one off against the other. Its how and why Vonn has reached this milestone, not the record alone or eclipsing Moser-Proell, which make her special.TALENTS NOT ENOUGH: Vonns brain is missing the alarm bells that tell the rest of us to slow down or she has learned to ignore them. Speed simply doesnt scare her. Thats why I have so many speeding tickets in my car, she has said. For her, an icy corner on a precipitous mountain slope is an opportunity to go quicker than others who apply the brakes. Not crashing occasionally, she figures, must mean that she isnt pushing hard enough. Im just not afraid.But she also was smart in realizing long ago, early in her career, that natural hard-wiring for speed wouldnt alone be sufficient. She became the dominant woman skier not simply by being quick but by training and working hard enough to exploit that talent.NOT A QUITTER: There were plenty of points along the way when Vonn could have said, enough. At 16, after failing to finish most of her races. At 21, when a back-crunching, cart-wheeling crash in training at the Turin Olympics made her realize, foor the first time, that at any second I could be done, not just in skiing, but in life.dddddddddddd In 2013, when she tore two right-knee ligaments, the ACL and MCL, that keep our thighbones attached to our shinbones. Or again in November that year, when she re-tore one of those ligaments that had been rebuilt with a graft from her hamstring, eventually forcing her out of the 2014 Sochi Olympics and back into surgery.Pain is as much a part of competitive skiing as snow. What is astounding about Vonn isnt her high tolerance for it but that shes winning again so soon after sweating her way back to health — not once but twice — from surgeries that emaciated her leg muscles. Only in September did her surgeon clear her to ski again. World Cup wins 60, 61, 62 and 63 have come in eight races since December. She has scars on her knee but her confidence and fearlessness seem remarkably intact.Im not dead; Im still here, Vonn says in a forthcoming TV documentary about her recovery. One day, that would make a fitting headstone.OFF-PISTE PERSONA: Given that they have people who manage their public personas, who tweet and post for them, and otherwise make them sound and look good, its silly to assume that the athlete on your cereal box is a model citizen in private, too. Michael Phelps drunken driving, the revelation in 2009 of Tiger Woods serial adultery or Lance Armstrongs doping — to name just those three — showed how success in sports is sometimes only half the story.Vonn does the public side extremely well. All sports could do with more women like her, to balance out and end the undeserved dominance of men. She is articulate about skiing, making the sport easier to understand and so more attractive. She seems to understand and deal graciously with media curiosity about her personal relationship with Woods, helping rehabilitate his image somewhat. Hes a catch. Hes a good boyfriend, Vonn said on the Today show after Woods sprang the surprise of turning up for her 63rd victory.For the most part, shes been remarkably scandal-free for her career, six-time Olympic medallist Bode Miller said this month of Vonn. She does the right stuff all the time. Shes a very clean-cut American superstar and thats an amazing title.A true star.___John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. 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