World Championship Recap - 17.05.25

Adam Klapka scored his first two career World Championships goals - part of a three-point day - as Czechia moved to the top of Group B.

Klapka's performance was just part of a busy Saturday overseas, as Flames captain Mikael Backlund also found the scoresheet in Sweden's win over France, while MacKenzie Weegar, Ryan Huska and Team Canada took care of business against Sam Honzek's Slovakia side.

Czechia 8, Kazakhstan 1

Klapka scored his first two senior IIHF tournament goals Saturday in Czechia's rout of Kazakhstan.

And the first was a thing of absolute beauty.

With the Czechs ahead 4-0 early in the third period, Klapka wheeled out of his own end, strode through the middle of the ice with confidence, then busted through the Kazakh defence before chipping the puck through the legs of netminder Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov.

He added a second tally in the final minute of regulation time, batting the puck out of mid-air to close out Czechia's 8-1 triumph.

In addition to his two goals, Klapka added an assist on the game-winner, a tally off the stick of Jakub Flek just under 90 seconds into period two.

Former Flame Roman Cervenka had a hat-trick for the Czechs, who moved to the top of Group B and secured their spot in the quarter-final round with the victory.

Dan Vladar backed up Utah Mammoth netminder Karel Vejmelka, who made 21 saves.

Canada 7, Slovakia 0

Sidney Crosby was a man on a mission Saturday, recording four points to help Canada past Slovakia.

He scored in each of the second and third periods - as did Nova Scotian teammate Nathan MacKinnon - as the Canadians improved their Group A record to 5-0-0.

Brandon Montour, Tyson Foerster and Macklin Celebrini also found the back of the net for the Canadians, while Jordan Binnington made 14 saves in goal to earn the clean sheet.

Flames defenceman Weegar was +2 over 15:14 of playing time.

On the Slovak side, Honzek skated for 11:57, over six minutes of which came in period three.

Sweden 4, France 0

Backlund assisted on former Calgary teammate Elias Lindholm's powerplay goal as Sweden kept their perfect record intact.

The tally came 4:39 into period two, and put Sweden ahead 3-0 - they sit atop Group A with a 6-0-0 record, and have outscored their opponents 25-3 so far in the tournament.

Lucas Raymond opened the scoring Saturday 13:27 into the first period, before Emil Heineman doubled the Swedish advantage 58 seconds later.

Isac Lundestrom rounded out the afternoon's offence in the third period, while at the other end of the rink, Sam Ersson stopped all 15 shots he faced to earn his second shutout at this year's Worlds.

In addition to his assist, Backlund won seven of his nine face-off attempts and had two shots on goal over his 15:53 of ice-time.

Defenceman Rasmus Andersson also had two shots on target and played a total of 17:14.

Honzek is the only Flame in action as the round-robin continues Sunday.

Slovakia faces Latvia at 12:20 p.m. MT.