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World Hockey Championship schedule: May 15th

With just a few days remaining in the group stage of the World Championship, several teams will hope to improve their standing to make the playoff round.

Group A Preliminary Games

9:15 AM ET: Denmark vs Czech Republic

Denmark will be in tough versus the group-leading Czechs. While the Danes have been guilty of indiscipline so far in the tournament, with the highest number of minor penalties taken, the Czechs have not been able to get their power play clicking. That’s about the only thing that is not working for a Czech team that has surprised many with its performance to this point. With just this game and one versus Switzerland on Tuesday, Tomas Plekanec’s team has a great chance to hold onto its top position. Denmark currently sits fifth in the group, and could give their quarter-final hopes a major boost with what would be an upset win. The game will be shown on TSN3 in Canada.

1:15 PM ET: Switzerland vs Sweden

Coming off a 5-1 loss to heavily reinforced Team Russia on Saturday, things don’t get much easier for Switzerland. Today they face Sweden, and will need to stop the offensive duo of Gustav Nyquist and Alexander Wennberg if they want to stay in control of their own destiny and make the quarter-finals on their own accord. Rapahel Diaz, who leads all tournament defencemen with six points, will be counted on to lead the offence from the blue line. The game will be shown on TSN3 in Canada.

Group B Preliminary Games

9:15 AM ET: Germany vs USA

A victory over Belarus on Friday ensured that Germany, who will co-host the World Championship next year, will qualiify for the Top Division on merit and not by default. The win also places Germany among the top four teams in Group B, which will earn the team a playoff game if they can hold on. To do that today, they will need either a loss from Slovakia or a positive result versus a young American squad. With few standout performers on Team USA (Dylan Larkin’s 20th-ranked point total leads the team), they have used a full team effort to sit in third place in the group. A proficient power play and penalty kill that rank sixth and seventh, respectively, have been major factors in achieving that status. The game will be shown on TSN1 in Canada.

1:15 PM ET: Slovakia vs Finland

After starting off with back-to-back wins, Martin Réway’s Slovakia has lost its past three games, scoring just three time in that span. The team is coming off a 5-0 shutout loss at the hands of Canada on Saturday, and could use a point or three from today’s contest. If that is to happen, it will be the first point Finland has left on the board all tournament long, getting a full complement of 15 points from five regulation wins to this point. They join Canada as the only perfect teams at this year’s event. Patrik Laine, who will be one of the top two selections at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, leads the team in points, and is just one off the overall lead in that category. Finland possesses the best power play, while also holding the second-best penalty kill, and are allowing teams to score on just 7.3% of their shots. With all of that in play, the final preliminary round game between the Finns and Team Canada should be a great contest. Slovakia will hope their opponent is one of the parties looking ahead to that match, and not focused on today’s game. The game will be shown on TSN1 in Canada.

All games will be streamed here (subject to geo-blocking). TSN Go will be streaming all of the games as well in Canada.

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