Team Sweden 2, Team Russia 1
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman scored the game-winning goal at 12:52 of the second period, giving Team Sweden a 2-1 victory over Team Russia in the tournament opener for both teams at the World Cup of Hockey 2016. Team Russia's Alex Ovechkin scored his team's lone goal with 33 seconds remaining in regulation and thought he had leveled the score with 8.2 seconds to go, but officials ruled Ovechkin had batted the potential game-tying goal into the net with his hand, a ruling that was confirmed by video review.
Hedman was named the game's First Star after scoring the game-winner from the slot, one-timing Carl Hagelin's pass from the left circle past Team Russia goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Hedman finished with two shots, one hit and one blocked shot and was plus-1 during his 22:54 of ice time, which led Team Sweden.
Following the game, Team Sweden head coach Rikard Gronborg said this about his star defenseman: "I think Hedman is a horse; you saw it today. He played all kinds of different situations, and now I know why he's so highly regarded. I knew that before, but now he's proven to everyone back at home in Sweden that this is how good he is. It was nice for me to see Victor have that kind of game."
Fellow Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman tied a team-high with two blocked shots versus Team Russia and was second on Team Sweden for time on ice at 22:11. Stralman and Hedman were the only two players from Team Sweden to record over 20 minutes of ice time.
Nikita Kucherov took two shots for Team Russia and saw 1:34 on the power play during his 15:28 of play.
Vladislav Namestnikov, Nikita Nesterov and Andrei Vasilevskiy were scratches for Team Russia.
Team North America 4, Team Finland 1
Team North America surged to a 4-0 lead before disposing of Team Finland 4-1 in both teams' tournament opener. Both Tampa Bay Lightning skaters playing in the game, Jonathan Drouin for Team North America and Valtteri Filppula for Team Finland, scored a goal for their respective teams.
Jonathan Drouin netted Team North America's third goal at 7:27 of the second period. Drouin weaved his way into the left circle and had his initial attempt stopped by Team Finland goalie Pekka Rinne. But Drouin followed up the rebound and sent his second shot into the back of the net. Drouin had three shots total and was plus-1 during his 15:26.
Valtteri Filppula netted the lone goal for Team Finland at 15:53 of the third period, one-timing Jussi Jokinen's behind-the-net feed past Team North America goalie Matt Murray from in close. Filppula had three shots, two hits, a blocked shot and a takeaway during 17:39 of ice time. Filppula also was tied for the second-most power-play TOI (2:10) for Team Finland.
