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.
Semifinal Round
Canada 4 – Russia 2
Down 2-0 and looking overwhelmed, Jon Cooper’s Team Canada scored three goals in the third (two late) to beat Russia, 4-2 and advance to the gold-medal game.
Brayden Point (two shots) and Alex Killorn were held without a point.
Nikita Kucherov had an assist. Vladislav Namestnikov had one shot in 5:17 of ice time. Niita Gusev had a goal. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 34 of 37 shots and was voted one of the three best Russian players of the tournament.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLnYmep7Fo8&w=560&h=315]Sweden 4 – Finland 1
Sweden’s power play clicked twice in the second period en route to a 4-1 semi-final win over Finland. The Swedes will face Canada for gold on Sunday in Cologne.
Anton Stralman had one shot and Victor Hedman had a shot and was named one of Sweden’s three best players of the tournament.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FBVhcIm5y4&w=560&h=315]Hedman, Stralman and Sweden vs. Cooper, Point, Killorn and Canada in tomorrow’s IIHF Word Hockey Championship Gold Medal final.
Vasilevskiy, Gusev, Namestnikov and Kucherov vs. Finland in tomorrow’s Bronze Medal game.
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