Russia's ice hockey team poured in three last-period goals yesterday on its way to a convincing 4 to 0 victory over the United States. The win puts Russia at the head of round-robin competition in the Winter Olympic Games at Cortina.

Held scoreless through the first period and to a single goal late in the second, the aggressive Russians broke the game wide open with three quick goals in the space of five minutes. Up until the Russian breakaway, the outcome could have gone either way, as both teams played strong defensive hockey.

America Bottled

The patched-up American team never was able to penetrate the defensive work of Soviet goalie Yurdy Pushkov. With the score 1 to 0, the Russians were able to successfully bottle up the U.S. in its own zone, while waiting for an opportunity to improve their lead.

To clinch the title outright, Russia must beat the Canadian's tomorrow in the final game. Some Cortina observers have predicted that Canada will bounce back from its defeat at the hands of the U.S. to beat Russia. In this case, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.A. would end up in a three-way tie based on won-lost records. The title would then be decided on a goals-for and goals-against basis.

At the present time, the Russians lead under this system with 23-5 for .821. The Canadians have 23-9 for .719 and the Americans 17-8 for .680.