The World Championships have six games on tap today in Russia.
Group A Preliminary Games
Sweden has rebounded well from their opening scare against Latvia. They are 2-1 with the loss coming to the very surprising Czech Republic team that is atop Group A. With positioning on the line for the medal round, they cannot afford to lose anymore winnable points, especially with a game against a full strength Russian team looming. Gustav Nyquist has five goals and is tied for the tournament lead. For Norway, they have a chance to catch Switzerland for the final medal round spot in Group A. Having said that, a regulation loss would put them in danger of relegation. The game will be shown on TSN1/3 in Canada
9:15 AM ET: Russia vs Switzerland
Switzerland is looking to pick up any points it possibly can to hold on to their medal round position. Their schedule gets harder in their final three games, and they could see their lead slip away if they don’t pick up any points the rest of the way. Russia should get their reinforcements in Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov for this one and considering the line of Artemi Panarin, Vadim Sipachyov and Yevgeni Dadonov lead the tournament in scoring, that’s a very scary proposition for opposing defenders. The game will be shown on TSN4 in Canada
1:15 PM ET: Kazakhstan vs Latvia
After both suffering tough losses on Friday, these two teams are literally fighting for their spot in the top division. The team that wins this game, especially in regulation, would be firmly in the driver’s seat and neither team can afford to lose this game. Both teams will only have one game left after this one, which makes a climb in the standings extremely hard for the loser. The game will be shown on TSN Go in Canada
Group B Preliminary Games
France, following a loss to the United States on Thursday, will be in tough against the undefeated Finns. France is guaranteed to not be relegated due to them hosting next year’s tournament with Germany but would like to earn their spot. They have an outside shot at the medal round if they get anything fromt his game. Finland is looking forward to their finale against Canada which will likely decide the Group B winner. The game will be shown on TSN4 in Canada
9:15 AM ET: Belarus vs Hungary
Hungary is the only team in the tournament to not get a point in the standings to this point, but they are putting together some pretty good games thanks to their goaltending. 22 year old Adam Vay is making a name for himself in this tournament. He is currently 7th in save percentage and has a very respectable goals against average of 3.67 considering he’s played the United States and Finland. Belarus has had an up and down tournament to date following up a win against Slovakia with a loss to Germany. They should win this one but if they don’t, they are in real relegation danger as these two teams are battling to stay up. The game will be shown on TSN1/3 in Canada
1:15 PM ET: Canada vs Slovakia
Canada had a real scare against Germany which might be bad news for the Slovakian team. Canada should come out strong knowing that they cannot take games for granted. They have a 14 game winning streak dating back to last year’s World Championship. Slovakia is coming off back to back losses to Germany and Belarus after getting off to a great start that seemed to have them as a lock for the medal round. That spot is now very much in jeopardy as they have been passed by the United States and Germany. The game will be shown on TSN1/3/4 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.
