2017 IIHF World Championships – Lightning Players Update 5/8

2017IIHFWCLogo

The 2017  IIHF World Championships are taking place in Paris, France and Cologne, Germany.

The Championship is made up of 16 teams divided into two groups.

Group A includes Germany, Russia, Sweden, United States, Slovakia, Latvia, Denmark and Italy.

Group B contains Canada, Finland, Belarus, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, France and Slovenia.

The top four ranked teams from each group following the preliminary round advance to the single-elimination quarterfinal.

The overall bottom ranked two teams will be relegated to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

The 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will consist of 16 teams including the team of the organizing member national association, thus Denmark cannot be among the two relegated teams.

The teams promoted to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will be the top two teams of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

Venues: AccorHotels Arena – Paris France and Lanxess Arena – Cologne, Germany
Mascots: Asterix and Obelix – main characters in the French comic book series, The
Adventures of Asterix.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are well represented at the World Championships with eight players and coach Jon Cooper taking part.

Team Canada has rookie Brayden Point and Alex Killorn skating for Jon Cooper.

Team Russia features goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, forwards Nikita Kucherov, Nikita Gusev and Vladislav Namestnikov.

Team Sweden boasts a solid blueline with Norris Trophy Finalist Victor Hedman and the always reliable Anton Stralman.

On Saturday, Sweden rebounded from their opening night loss with a commanding 7-2 win over Germany.

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 6: Sweden’s Viktor Fasth #30 and Victor Hedman #77 celebrate after a 7-2 preliminary round win over Germany at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotF_DPZOrQ&w=560&h=315]

Jon Cooper’s defending champion Team Canada and Team Russia continued their strong starts at the IIHF World Championship tournament. Both had electrifying victories on Sunday.

Russia destroyed Italy 10-1 behind the Lightning’s Vladislav Namestnikov‘s two goals and two assists. Bolts sniper Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three helpers while goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 14 shots.

“Overall, I don’t think this result will make anyone complacent,” Namestnikov said. “The key thing is that we’ve won two games, now we need to get ready for Germany. We know they’re a decent team. We saw them beat the USA, so we have to be fully prepared.”

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 7: Russia’s Nikita Kucherov #86 celebrates with Vladislav Namestnikov #90 after scoring a second period goal against Italy during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsgFuu7iNR8&w=560&h=315]

Team Canada clobbered Slovenia 7-2 as Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point scored his first goal of the tournament.

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
PARIS, FRANCE – MAY 7: Slovenia’s Gasper Kroselj #32, Luka Vidmar #23 look on as Canada’s Brayden Point #21 scores during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5ZeEGV3OY&w=560&h=315]

On Monday Russia beat Germany 6-3 and Canada shutout Belarus 6-0. Sweden beat

Nikita Kucherov had two goals  and Nikita Gusev had a goal and an assist in the Russian victory over Germany. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 8: Russia’s Andrei Vasilevski #88 makes the save against Germany’s Brooks Macek #12 during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2YrG9CZqbY&w=560&h=315]

In the Team Canada whitewashing of  Belarus, Tampa Bay Lightning rookie Brayden Point – who was named Canada’s player of the game – added a pair of goals.

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 8: Russia’s Andrei Vasilevski #88 makes the save against Germany’s Brooks Macek #12 during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxgv6_ylZfk&w=560&h=315]

Team USA found a way to beat Sweden 4-3 on Monday. Sweden is probably wondering what more it had to do to win this game. The They led three times without finishing off the Americans. Going into the final period locked at 3-3, the Swedes produced a blistering passage of play, aided by two US penalties, but failed to put the puck in the net. So disciplined was Rikard Gronborg’s team that it went 55 minutes without even taking a penalty – only to pay three visits to the box in the dying minutes when panic took hold.

Anton Stralman had an assist and Victor Hedman scored his first goal.

“I think we played well enough to win this game. We definitely had our chances,” said Sweden’s Anton Stralman after the game. “Unfortunately we lost our coverage a couple of time in the first period and allowed them to score goals. We weren’t always cautious with the puck in dangerous areas.”

2017 IIHF World Championships - Lightning Players Update 5/8
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 8: Sweden’s Viktor Fasth #30 attempts to make the save while Victor Hedman #77 battles with the USA forward during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYBb3NblR0c&w=560&h=315]

Russia is in first place in Group A, Canada tops Group B, while Sweden drops to fourth in Group A.

 Lightning Players Totals

CanadaPOINT Brayden

Position: Forward
Shoots/Catches Right
Height (cm): 180
Height (ft in): 5’11”
Weight (kg): 75
Weight (lbs): 165
Date of Birth: 13 Mar 1996
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 3 0 3 0 5 2 0 0 11 27.27

CanadaKILLORN Alex

Position: Forward
Shoots/Catches Left
Height (cm): 188
Height (ft in): 6’2”
Weight (kg): 88
Weight (lbs): 194
Date of Birth: 14 Sep 1989
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 5 0.00

RussiaVASILEVSKIY Andrei

Position: Goalie
Shoots/Catches Left
Height (cm): 190
Height (ft in): 6’3”
Weight (kg): 90
Weight (lbs): 198
Date of Birth: 25 Jul 1994
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP MIP %MIP GA SVS SOG %SVS GAA SO W L
3 165:00 89.19 5 58 63 92.06 1.82 0 2 0

RussiaKUCHEROV Nikita

Position: Forward
Shoots/Catches Left
Height (cm): 180
Height (ft in): 5’11”
Weight (kg): 77
Weight (lbs): 170
Date of Birth: 17 Jun 1993
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 3 3 6 0 2 0 1 0 12 25.00

RussiaNAMESTNIKOV Vladislav

Position: Forward
Shoots/Catches Left
Height (cm): 180
Height (ft in): 5’11”
Weight (kg): 82
Weight (lbs): 181
Date of Birth: 22 Nov 1992
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 2 2 4 4 2 0 0 0 5 40.00

RussiaGUSEV Nikita

Position: Forward
Shoots/Catches Right
Height (cm): 178
Height (ft in): 5’10”
Weight (kg): 76
Weight (lbs): 168
Date of Birth: 8 Jul 1992
Club: SKA St. Petersburg
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 1 3 4 0 1 1 1 0 8 12.50

SwedenSTRALMAN Anton

Position: Defenseman
Shoots/Catches Right
Height (cm): 180
Height (ft in): 5’11”
Weight (kg): 86
Weight (lbs): 190
Date of Birth: 1 Aug 1986
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 0 3 3 0 2 0 0 0 1 0.00

SwedenHEDMAN Victor

Position: Defenseman
Shoots/Catches Left
Height (cm): 198
Height (ft in): 6’6”
Weight (kg): 101
Weight (lbs): 223
Date of Birth: 18 Dec 1990
Club: Tampa Bay Lightning
GP G A PTS PIM +/- GWG PPG SHG SOG %SG
3 1 2 3 2 2 0 0 0 4 0.00

Russia plays Denmark, Canada plays France and Sweden plays Latvia on Thursday.

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