ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The Russian Hockey Federation says it is calling up forward Alex Ovechkin and Washington Capitals teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov for the world championships.
The Capitals lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of the NHL playoffs on Tuesday.
Ovechkin, in his 12th career world championship, joins a Russian team which has struggled at times on home ice with an opening loss to the Czech Republic. Russia then beat Kazakhstan and Latvia.
Russia's next game is against Denmark on Thursday in Moscow.