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.
Thursday marked the seventh day of competition, with Nikolaj Ehlers of Denmark and Nino Niederreiter of Switzerland taking to the ice.
SWITZERLAND 4, SLOVAKIA 2
For the first time in this year's tournament, the Swiss - who came into Thursday having outscored their opponents 15-0 in their first three games - gave up a goal.
But they didn't let it deter them, as they improved to 4-0-0-0 with a 4-2 win over Slovakia.
Nino Niederreiter scored his fourth goal of the tournament in the victory, which propelled Switzerland to the top spot in Group B.
The Swiss opened the scoring just over five minutes into the first, and Niederreiter built on that lead 4:47 into the second. He caught up to the play to create a two-on-one rush, and when teammate Andres Ambuhl slid the puck across to Niederreiter on the left side, the Jets forward fired it by Slovakian goaltender Samuel Hlavaj to make it 2-0.
But Switzerland's seemingly impenetrable defence broke shortly after, with Slovakia scoring just 21 seconds later to end the Swiss shutout streak. Then, Pavel Regenda made it 2-2 with 31 seconds left in the second period, sending the game to the third tied 2-2.
Switzerland snagged the lead back on a Christian Marti tally 6:51 into the final period, and from there, Switzerland added an empty net goal to seal with win.
After picking up wins in the first three games of the Worlds for the first time in history, Denmark saw their winning streak come to an end on Thursday.
Nikolaj Ehlers assisted on the game's opening goal from Matias Lassen 5:39 into the first, but three unanswered goals from Germany to open the second period put Denmark behind the eight ball.
Ehlers and Denmark battled back though, tying the game at 3-3 with just five minutes to go in regulation. But they gave it right back to Germany, who scored 20 seconds later to make it 4-3, then created a two-goal cushion on a Marcel Noebels goal with 1:04 remaining.
Still, the Danes didn't go down without a fight. They made it 5-4 with 32 seconds left with an extra attacker on the ice, but an empty netter from Nico Sturm just seven seconds later gave Denmark their first regulation loss of the event.
Ehlers - who has seven points in four games in the tournament - will face off with a Jets teammate in Denmark's next outing, as they take on Dylan Samberg and the United States on Saturday.
