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.
Andrei Vasilevskiy earned a 21 save shutout in Russia’s 4-0 victory over Denmark on Thursday in Cologne. Both teams were held scoreless for almost 40 minutes until the Russians broke out with three goals in a minute and ten seconds. Nikita Kucherov recorded an assist on Bogdan Kiselevich’s goal to open the scoring. Lightning prospect Nikita Gusev scored Russia’s third goal of the game.
А вот так Гусев делает 3:0 – добивай, как Никита! pic.twitter.com/bdEIiibBM4
— Хоккей России (@russiahockey) May 11, 2017
Russia meets Slovakia in their next game on Saturday morning.
Thursday also saw Team Sweden take on Latvia. Lightning blueliners Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman were held scoreless in the contest but Tre Kronor would win 2-0.
News broke that goaltender Henrik Lundqvist would be joining his countrymen after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs. Stralman was excited to be reunited with the King:
Stralman on Henrik Lundqvist: "I’m looking forward to having him on my team again. He can watch my nice ass flying around down the ice."
— Brian Hedger (@BrianHedger) May 11, 2017
Friday saw the Swedes deliver a dominant 8-1 victory over Team Italy. Anton Stralman recorded an assist on Elias Lindholm‘s goal to make it 4-1 in the third period.
Victor Hedman was involved in a relatively innocent looking collision near center ice:
https://twitter.com/HockeyWebCast/status/863116278726365185
The impact would split his visor and resulted in a laceration dangerously close to Hedman’s left eye. Victor would leave the game to receive medical attention. It would take four stitches to close the cut. Photos have been making the rounds but be warned if you’re squeamish.
Hedmans visir sprack – fick sy fyra stygn https://t.co/fSpyBuXSqA pic.twitter.com/WPsQVgGJH9
— Jimmy Wixtrom (@jimmywixtrom) May 12, 2017
Rounding out the last two days’ Bolts action was Thursday’s contest between Canada and France. Alex Killorn and Brayden Point were held off the score sheet but recorded 10:16 and 14:19 in ice time respectively. Canada would earn a 3-2 victory to stay atop Group B. Their next game is Saturday against Switzerland.
Off the ice, Team Canada is enjoying some of the sites:
https://twitter.com/HC_Men/status/861957084673220608
Brayden Point even made Mitch Marner‘s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT4FrXClgPj/?taken-by=marner_93
Follow me on Twitter @alexis_b82 and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected].
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
