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.
Sweden 4 – Denmark 2
Niklas Backstrom, who flew in from Washington on the morning of the game, scored a goal and dished out an assist in Sweden’s 4-2 victory, while New York Ranger Oscar Lindberg also tallied a point in his first game of the competition. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist, playing alongside his twin brother Joel, shrugged off the after-effects of his flight from New York to backstop the team with 19 saves.
Anton Stralman was held off the scoreboard while skating over 26 minutes.
Victor Hedman skated 22:42 without a shot on goal.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKpl7–qVSo&w=560&h=315]Sweden takes on Slovakia tomorrow.
Canada 5 – Norway 0
Canada made a full and impressive recovery from its overtime loss to the Swiss two days ago, pouring on the pressure and defeating Norway handily. Chad Johnson earned the easy shutout, stopping only ten shots (eight in the first, two in the second, and none in the third).
Brayden Point skated 17 shifts for a total ice time of 11:52.
Alex Killorn had three shots on goal in 13:59.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nvacoC2cE&w=560&h=315]Canada takes on Finland tomorrow.
Russia 5 – Latvia 0
Russia’s win over Latvia tonight at LANXESS arena is marked by their third straight shutout win. They remain on top of Group A.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had the night off following two straight shutouts. Nikita Kucherov netted a goal and two assists, Nikita Gusev dished out an assist and Vladislav Namestnikov had a goal and an assist.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM1PUIcNdIk&w=560&h=315]Russia plays Team USA tomorrow for first place in Group A.
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