The IIHF World Championship never fails to disappoint and that was exactly the case on Friday with four action-packed games to kick off the tournament in Denmark and Sweden.
In the early game in Group A, Finland took on Austria, and over in Group B, it was a rematch of last year’s gold medal game as David Pastrnak’s Czechia battled Nico Hischier’s Switzerland. Meanwhile in the the second game of the day in each group, both co-hosts got in on the action as Sweden faced Slovakia and Denmark took on the United States.
Austria (1) vs Finland (2) F
Finland kicked off their World Championship schedule with a date with the Austrians, who are coming off their best finish at the tournament in over 20 years. It was a tight contest between the two sides, with Austrian netminder Atte Tolvanen, brother of Finnish forward Eeli Tolvanen making 26 saves on 28 shots. All of the scoring took place in the opening 20 minutes as Patrik Puistola and Juuso Parssinen finding the back of the net a little over two minutes apart to give Finland a 2-0 lead. With just over six minutes remaining in the first, Bernd Wolf scored Austria’s lone goal of the game.
Scoring Summary:
Finland
- Patrik Puistola (1) Assists: Robin Salo (1), Lenni Hameenaho (1).
- Juuso Parssinen (1) Assists: Mikael Seppala (1), Harri Pesonen (1).
Austria
- Bernd Wolf (1) Assists: Clemens Unterweger (1), Peter Schneider (1).
Switzerland (4) vs Czechia (5) F/OT
In a rematch of last year’s gold medal game, Czechia and Switzerland faced each other with the latter looking for revenge after losing the 2024 final by a score of 2-0 following a third period goal from David Pastrnak. It’s still very early, but when this tournament concludes on May 25th, this game might go down as one of the best during the 2025 IIHF World Championship. Switzerland’s Christian Marti got the scoring started early, 1:34 into the first period. Damien Riat doubled Switzerland’s lead late in the opening frame, while Matej Stransky pulled the Czechs within one with 19 seconds remaining. Czechia would go on to twice in the second period to take a 3-2 lead before Switzerland stormed back in the first half of the third period, scoring two goal to go up 4-3. Former NHLer Lukas Sedlak tied the game at 4-4 late in the final frame, forcing 3-on-3 overtime where the ageless wonder, Roman Cervenka scored the winner for Czechia, his 28th career World Championship goal.
Scoring Summary
Czechia
- Matej Stransky (1) Assists: David Pastrnak (1), Roman Cervenka (1).
- Filip Zadina (1) Assists: Jakub Krejcik (1), Michael Spacek (1).
- Filip Pyrochta (1) Assists: Filip Zadina (1), David Spacek (1).
- Lukas Sedlak (1) Assists: Roman Cervenka (2), Filip Hronek (1).
- Roman Cervenka (1) Assists: David Pastrnak (2), Karel Vejmelka (1).
Switzerland
- Christian Marti (1) Assists: Gregory Hoffman (1), Michael Fora (1).
- Damien Riat (1) Assists: Jonas Siegenthaler (1), Dean Kukan (1).
- Sandro Schmid (1) Assists: Tyler Moy (1), Gregory Hoffman (2).
- Sven Andrighetto (1) Assists: Christian Marti (1), Denis Malgin (1).
Sweden (5) vs Slovakia (0) F
Co-hosts Sweden are looking to make some noise on home ice at the 2025 IIHF World Championship after taking home bronze last year and they got off to a great start against a young Slovakian squad. For the most part, Sweden dominated the game from start to finish, scoring three times in the opening frame including twice in the final 1:10 of the period. They would go on to add one in the second and another in the third to win their first game of the tournament by a score of 5-0. Jacob Markstrom made 15 saves for his second career World Championship shutout and first since 2010, while Marcus Pettersson, Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm all had multi-point efforts in the win.
Scoring Summary
Sweden
- Mikael Backlund (1) Assists: Emil Heineman (1), Elias Lindholm (1).
- Leo Carlsson (1) Assists: Marcus Pettersson (1), Marcus Johansson (1).
- Jonas Brodin (1) Assists: Adam Larsson (1), Isac Lundestrom (1).
- Elias Lindholm (1) Assists: Erik Gustafsson (1), Mikael Backlund (1).
- Mika Zibanejad (1) Assists: Rasmus Andersson (1), Marcus Pettersson (2).
Denmark (0) vs United States (5) F
While one co-host got off to a great start with, the other, Denmark, was on the wrong side of a 5-0 game as they took on the United States in front of a packed house at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning. In a bit of a surprise, especially considering they have a day off tomorrow, US head coach Ryan Warsofsky turned to Joey Daccord to get the start rather than Jeremy Swayman, but it turned out to be the right decision as the Seattle Kraken netminder stopped all 26 shots he faced in the victory. The United States peppered former Montreal Canadiens prospect Frederik Dichow with 48 shots on Friday, with five finding the back of the net including a pair from Seattle Kraken forward Matty Beniers, while Cutter Gauthier, Michael Kesselring and Mason Lohrei all picked up two points.
Scoring Summary
United States
- Cutter Gauthier (1) Assist: Michael Kesselring (1).
- Logan Cooley (1) Assists: Conor Garland (1), Tage Thompson (1).
- Matty Beniers (1) Assists: Andrew Peeke (1), Mason Lohrei (1).
- Mason Lohrei (1) Assists: Michael Kesselring (2), Frank Nazar (1).
- Matty Beniers (2) Assists: Cutter Gauthier (1), Will Smith (1).
Standings After Day 1
Group A
- Sweden (1 GP, 1 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 5 GF, 0 GA, +5, 3 PTS)
- Finland (1 GP, 1 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 2 GF, 1 GA, +1, 3 PTS)
- Canada (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Latvia (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- France (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Slovenia (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Austria (1 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 1 L, 1 GF, 2 GA, -1, 0 PTS)
- Slovakia (1 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 5 GA, -5, 0 PTS)
Group B
- United States (1 GP, 1 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 5 GF, 0 GA, +5, 3 PTS)
- Czechia (1 GP, 0 W, 1 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 5 GF, 4 GA, +1, 2 PTS)
- Switzerland (1 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 1 OTL, 0 L, 4 GF, 5 GA, -1, 1 PT)
- Germany (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Norway (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Kazakhstan (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Hungary (0 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 0 L, 0 GF, 0 GA, +/-0, 0 PTS)
- Denmark (1 GP, 0 W, 0 OTW, 0 OTL, 1 L, 0 GF, 5 GA, -5, 0 PTS)
My 3 Stars of Day 1
- Roman Cervenka (Czechia) – 1 goal, including OT winner, 2 assists vs Switzerland.
- Matty Beniers (United States) – 2 goals vs Denmark.
- Mikael Backlund (Sweden) – 1 goal, 1 assist vs Slovakia.
Day 2 Schedule (Saturday, May 10th)
The first of four triple-headers of the tournament takes place on Saturday bright and early on the east coast with Sidney Crosby and Team Canada beginning their quest for gold at 6:20 am ET against Slovenia. The co-hosts Sweden and Denmark will be back in action tomorrow as they face Austria and Switzerland, respectively. Norway vs Kazakhstan, Germany Hungary and France vs Latvia will be the other three games throughout Day 2.
- Slovenia vs Canada (6:20 am ET)
- Norway vs Kazakhstan (6:20 am ET)
- Germany vs Hungary (10:20 am ET)
- Sweden vs Austria (10:20 am ET)
- France vs Latvia (2:20 pm ET)
- Denmark vs Switzerland (2:20 pm ET)