Jets at the Worlds - Day 12

Three members of the Winnipeg Jets are participating in the 2023 IIHF World Hockey Championship, which is being hosted in Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia.

Tuesday marked the 12th day of competition and the last day of the preliminary round, with Nikolaj Ehlers, Dylan Samberg, and Switzerland taking to the ice - without Nino Niederreiter, who didn't play in his team's preliminary round finale.

USA 4, SWEDEN 3

For the first time ever, a team from the USA has won all of its first seven games at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.

And Dylan Samberg was the hero that made it happen.

Samberg scored his first goal of the tournament, and he picked a perfect time for it, as his snipe off the left post won the game for the Americans in overtime by a score of 4-3. The defenceman also played a team-leading 20:22 in the win.

After giving up the first goal of the game 9:10 into the contest to Sweden's draft-eligible forward, Leo Carlsson, the USA stormed back.

Nick Bonino tied the game on a power play marker with 3:11 left in the first, then Conor Garland added another on the man advantage with 6:06 remaining in the second.

Just 24 seconds later, Lane Hutson made it 3-1 USA on a partial break.

Sweden tied the game with two quick goals of their own late in the third, Carlsson netted his second and Timothy Liljegren notched the equalizer, turning a 3-1 game into a 3-3 tie in a span of 2:38.

But that set the stage for Samberg, who pinched down from the blue line and snapped home a pass from Carter Mazur to give the USA the win and top spot in Group A.

Samberg and the USA will play Czechia in the quarterfinal on Thursday.

FINLAND 7, DENMARK 1

It wasn't the end to the preliminary round that Denmark was hoping for.

After picking up two wins, and a third victory in overtime, in their first three outings at the Worlds, Denmark lost four in a row to close out their seven-game schedule.

The last of those defeats came on Tuesday against the hosts from Finland.

The Finns scored twice in the opening 3:31 and never looked back, handing the Danes a tough 7-1 loss.

Nikolaj Ehlers had the lone goal for Denmark, and he finished the preliminary round with five goals and nine points, putting him among the tournament leaders in points.

Denmark has been eliminated from the tournament, but any opportunity to represent his country means a lot to Ehlers.

SWITZERLAND 3 , LATVIA 4 (OT)

The Swiss were hoping to finish the preliminary round with a perfect record - all regulation wins - and to do so, they'd need a victory against Latvia, who came in with a 3-1-0-2 record.

They had a chance, with a 3-2 lead late in the third, but in the end, Latvia picked up a 4-3 overtime win.

After a scoreless first, Latvia went up 1-0 on a goal from Ralfs Friebergs 1:43 into the second. Switzerland fought back to tie it just under 5 minutes later on a tally from Kevin Fiala, only to have Latvia snag the lead back 32 seconds later.

Switzerland rallied at the start of the third. Marco Miranda made it 2-2 seven minutes into the third, and then Andres Ambuhl put the Swiss ahead 3-2.

That could've been it, especially with how strong Switzerland had been defensively throughout the tournament, but Kaspars Daugavins tied things up 70 seconds after Switzerland had grabbed the lead.

In overtime, Switzerland's Tanner Richard was called for holding, and that gave Latvia the opening they needed to win it on a Rudolfs Balcers goal.

Switzerland's next opponent, Germany, comes in Thursday's quarterfinal.