World Championship Recap - 19.05.24

Andrew Mangiapane and Martin Pospisil were both in action Sunday, with Canada grinding out a 3-2 win over Switzerland to strengthen their grip on first place in Group A, while Slovakia dropped a 3-2 decision in a shootout to Latvia.

And on this day, both Flames were heavily involved in the offence.

Canada 3, Switzerland 2

Mangiapane assisted on each of Canada's three goals as the red and white outlasted the Swiss in what Gord Miller aptly referred to as a "white knuckle" affair.

Canada scored twice on a Kevin Fiala kneeing major midway through the second period to climb out of a 2-1 deficit and pull ahead.

For good.

With the win, Canada improves to 6-0 in the tournament, with the round-robin schedule set to close out on Tuesday vs. David Pastrnak and the host Czechia (8:20 a.m. MT).

It didn't take long for the Canadians to grab hold of the game, as the hot stick of Dylan Cozens opened the scoring with a powerplay strike less than two minutes into the contest.

Mangiapane figured prominently into the scoring play, setting up in the bumper and drawing the attention of all four defenders after receiving a pass from John Tavares in the slot. Chaos ensued, with Tavares pouncing on a loose puck and rifling a shot through traffic, before Cozens - unfettered at the far circle - ripped home the rebound to make it 1-0 at 1:42.

The Swiss returned fire with under 10 to play in the period, with their red-hot powerplay - featuring the likes of Nico Hischier, Roman Josi and Kevin Fiala - improving to 10-for-24 in the tournament.

Fiala scored on a play we saw numerous times with the LA Kings this year, curling off the wall and into a shooting position at the left circle, before snapping it five-hole on Jordan Binnington.

After Romain Loeffel gave the Swiss their first lead with a point shot through traffic early in the second, Fiala was given five and a game for kneeing Cozens in the neutral zone. Canadian blueliner Kaiden Guhle delivered a cross-check to Fiala in the scrum afterward, and as a result, the red and white had three minutes of powerplay time to work with after a brief period of 4-on-4.

And, boy, they made him pay.

Cozens - on a feed from Mangiapane off the rush - pulled his team even with a top-shelf snipe on Leonardo Genoni, tying American captain Brady Tkachuk for the tournament lead in goals with six.

'Off the floor, on the board,' as it were.

Switzerland, though, had a chance to re-take the lead with a penalty shot after Connor Bedard was called for holding Calvin Thurkauf on a short-handed breakaway. But Binnington made a beautiful right-pad stop on Sven Andrighetto, who was the player chosen to shoot.

Moments later - and with Fiala's major still on the board - Mangiapane made a gorgeous play to Nick Paul at the doorstep, sending a one-time slap-pass across the grain from the right dot for an easy tap-in, putting Canada up 3-2 at 10:39.

Binnington locked it down the rest of the way, finishing with 20 saves.

Mangiapane, meanwhile, had 11:52 in ice time.

Latvia 3, Slovakia 2 (SO)

Big games call for big-game players - and the biggest of opportunities for them to shine.

WIth Slovakia trailing 1-0 early in the third period, Pospisil supplied one of the coldest moments of his young career, taking a centring pass from Pavol Regenda and showing great patience in tight, before pulling the puck to his backhand and sliding it home to score his third of the tournament.

And in the process, nearly blowing the lid off the Ostrava Arena.

The teams traded goals 24 seconds apart late in regulation - Peter Cehlarik for the Slovaks, before Oskars Cibulskis tallied in response, only six seconds after pulling the goalie for an extra-attacker, and 1:20 before the final buzzer.

With momentum on their side, Latvia had a 10-1 shot advantage in overtime - which included a full, two-minute powerplay - but Samuel Hlavaj stood tall to preserve the deadlock and send the game to a shootout.

Latvian forward Dans Locmelis potted the winner in the marathon skills contest, with goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis stopping six of seven Slovak shooters.

Pospisil was not one of the players chosen to shoot.

Ralfs Freibergs drew first blood for the Latvians with 1:21 to play in a lopsided opening frame, tipping a slap-pass from Miks Indrasis off the far post, then off his own body, and past Hlavaj after his club was out-shot 20-7.

Pospisil finished with three shots in 16:20 of ice time, while going 6-for-12 in the faceoff circle.

The Slovaks close out their round-robin schedule on Tuesday vs. Sweden (12:20 p.m. MT).