PAP / EPA / TOMS KALNINS / Pictured: Canadian national team ice hockey players
On Friday, the first games of the Elite Hockey World Championships were played. The host teams, i.e. Finland and Latvia, did not succeed in their inauguration.
In Tampere, the Finns were favored against the Americans and after the first half everything was fine. Teemu Hartikainen gave the hosts the lead. The rivals’ response only came in the 34th minute, and Cutter Gauthier scored to make it 1-1. This was followed by Suomi’s disastrous third set, with Drew O’Connor and Alex Tuch scoring for the United States. The latter also made the game 4-1 with a shot into an empty net.
There was also emotion in Friday’s second game at the Nokia Arena, although only one goal was scored. The Swedes had been struggling with the Germans for a long time. It was not until the 42nd minute that Oscar Lindberg took advantage of the power play period to score the winning goal. Three Crowns keeper Lars Johansson made 19 saves and kept a clean sheet. His vis-à-vis, Mathias Niederberger, successfully intervened 22 times.
The hosts of Group B, ie the Latvians, also experienced the bitterness of defeat on Friday. At the Arena Riga rink, they were scored by the Canadians, strengthened by the NHL draft, who scored twice in each period and confidently won 6:0. From the first minute, Lawson Crouse scored, then Scott Laughton increased the score for the game. The Latvian coach decided to change goalkeeper, but the replacement was successively defeated by MacKenzie Weegar, Samuel Blais, Joe Veleno and Jack McBain. Samuel Montembeault of the Montreal Canadiens hit the puck 23 times and kept a clean sheet.
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Our southern neighbors also met in Riga. The Czechs and Slovaks scored goals only in the first half. The favorites had to make up for their losses twice. At 1:2 Lukas Sedlak scored twice for the Czechs and became the hero. Although the Slovaks had more shots on target (26-22), they ultimately lost 2:3.
group A:
Finland – USA 1:4 (1:0, 0:1, 0:3)
(Hartikainen 18′ – Gauthier 34′, O’Connor 50′, Tuch 53′ and 60′)
Sweden – Germany 1:0 (0:0, 0:0, 1:0)
(Lindberg 42′)
| m | Crew | m | WITH | ZPD/K | PPD/K | P | Goals | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UNITED STATES | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4-1 | 3 |
| 2 | Sweden | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-0 | 3 |
| 3 | Germany | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0-1 | 0 |
| 4 | Finland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1-4 | 0 |
| 5 | Denmark | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 6 | France | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 7 | Austria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 8 | Hungary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
Group B:
Slovakia – Czech Republic 2-3 (2-3, 0-0, 0-0)
(Chromiak 5′, Rosandic 11′ – Cervenka 7′, Sedlak 14′ and 19′)
Latvia – Canada 0-6 (0-2, 0-2, 0-2)
(Crouse 1′, Laughton 5′, Weegar 29′, Blais 36′, Veleno 54′, McBain 56′)
| m | Crew | m | WITH | ZPD/K | PPD/K | P | Goals | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6-0 | 3 |
| 2 | The Czech Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3-2 | 3 |
| 3 | Slovakia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2-3 | 0 |
| 4 | Latvia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0-6 | 0 |
| 5 | Swiss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 6 | Norway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 7 | Kazakhstan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 8 | Slovenia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
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