It was the Germans' first victory over Russia at the worlds.

German goalie Dennis Endras had 31 saves in Bratislava's Orange Arena to help the Germans avenge a 2-1 loss to Russia at the semis of last year's worlds, which they hosted.

Greilinger netted the first goal with a wrist shot at 4:19 of the second period and Reimer added the unassisted second on a breakaway with 2:07 remaining in the third to seal the victory.

Russia, the most successful team in worlds history with 25 trophies, mounted pressure toward the end of the game, outshooting Germany 12-5 in the final period but forward Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Radulov and Vladimir Tarasenko failed to convert their chances.

In the other game, underdog France held Switzerland to a goalless draw before Julien Vauclair collected the puck from Ivo Ruthemann to score the decisive goal on a solo effort 1:46 into sudden death overtime.

“I like those kinds of play,” Vauclair said. “I just took my chance, ran over and scored.” France looked better for the first two periods against Switzerland, which reached the quarterfinals at the 2010 worlds.

“They really took charge, at least for the first 40 minutes today,” Vauclair said. “Today, we can be happy and have to thanks our goalie to give us a chance to win the game in overtime.” Swiss goaltender Tobias Stephan stopped 29 shots for the shutout.

“We had a lot of chances,” French coach Dave Henderson said.

“Sometimes we don't shoot enough when we have chances.” The match had to be interrupted for several minutes in the third period due to power blackout in Kosice's Steel Arena.

Olympic gold medalist Canada faces Belarus in their opening game later Friday while host Slovakia plays Slovenia.