OFF TO THE QUARTERS

The Flames have five players participating in the 2021 IIHF World Championship, with Andrew Mangiapane (Canada), Connor Mackey (USA), Nikita Nesterov (Russia), Emilio Pettersen (Norway) and Ilya Solovyov (Belarus) suiting up for their respected countries.

FINLAND 3, CANADA 2 SHOOTOUT

With a little help, Canada is off to the quarter-final!
Despite the shootout loss in their final round-robin game, Canada moves on thanks to Germany's 2-1 regulation win over Latvia - finishing fourth in Group B with a 3-3-1 mark.
The Canadians came out strong, as Brandon Pirri scored just 1:30 into the contest and outshot Finland 18-5 in the opening 20 minutes. Andrew Mangiapane continued his point streak at the tourney, collecting an assist on Maxime Comtois' second-period powerplay marker. Mangiapane ends group play with eight points (4G, 4A), tied for fifth in tournament scoring, despite playing in three less games.
Canada will now face Russia in one of the four quarter-final matchups on Thursday.

USA 4, ITALY 2

Make that six in a row.
The United States continued to roll, using a three-goal first period to propel them to victory over Italy in their final round-robin game.
Connor Mackey recorded one hit as the Americans clinched top spot in Group B to finish with a 6-1 record and 18 points. With a stingy eight goals against in seven games, the United States head into the quarter-final having allowed the fewest goals of any team in the tournament.
They'll look to keep that trend up Thursday when they take on Slovakia with a spot in the semi-finals on the line.

RUSSIA 6, BELARUS 0

What a way to wrap up group play!
Nikita Nesterov led the way with a three-point game (2G, 1A), leading Russia to a blowout victory to clinch top spot Group A with 19 points. Nesterov now has four points in as many games in the tourney.

Russia ends with a 6-1 mark and an impressive 28 goals scored, with only 10 goals against, in seven games.
Now, it's off to the quarter-finals for a showdown against Mangiapane and the Canadians.
For Ilya Soloyov and Belarus, they finish the tournament 1-5-1 with four points and last in Group A.