CANADA 6 SLOVAKIA 5
It was two Oilers d-men squaring off in Group A preliminary round action at the IIHF World Championship on Monday as an absolutely wild affair saw Darnell Nurse and Canada eke out victory over Andrej Sekera and host nation Slovakia with 1.8 seconds left in regulation to pull off the 6-5 win in stunning fashion.
RECAP: CAN 6, SVK 5
Things started well for Slovakia in front of a rowdy group of home country supporters in Košice when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Matus Sukel and Adam Liska to put the top-seed Canadians on their heels early.
But before the opening 20 had even elapsed, Canada responded with a pair of their own from Anthony Mantha and Shea Theodore to knot things up heading into the middle frame.
Once again it was all Slovakia to open the period with Ladislav Nagy lighting the lamp and Liska scoring his second of the game to quickly restore their two-goal cushion, albeit it was shortlived, as Canada roared back with three of their own in the middle frame to take a 5-4 advantage into the final 20. Jonathan Marchessault, Anthony Cirelli and Troy Stecher accounted for Canada's offensive outburst to take the lead.
The Slovaks weren't going anywhere though, as Sukel drew them even with less than ten minutes remaining on his second of the game to set up the dramatic finish that was.
With less than two minutes remaining in regulation, an Erik Cernak tripping call sent Canada to the power play where, with just 1.8 seconds on the clock, Mark Stone wired a wrist-shot over the shoulder of Slovak goaltender Patrik Rybar to stun the crowd in Slovakia and ensure victory for Canada.
Stone Scores in Dying Seconds
Darnell Nurse put up an impressive 25:35 TOI in the win, playing nearly four minutes more than the total of the next Canadian skater, and finished even on the day in terms of plus-minus.
With the win, Canada moves to 2-0-0-1 on the tournament and now sits third in Group A standings behind the Finland and Germany. Slovakia drops to a 1-0-0-2 record and fifth in Group A after a victory in their opening matchup vs. USA and then two consecutive regulation losses to Finland and Canada.
Next up for Nurse and Canada is a meeting against France on Thursday, May 16 at 8:15am MT. Sekera and the Slovaks will be back in action against Leon Draisaitl and the Germans on Wednesday, May 15 at 12:15pm MT.
SWEDEN 9 NORWAY 1
Over in Group B action, Adam Larsson and the Swedes had an easier go of things as the reigning IIHF champs squared off against Norway and ran away to a 9-1 victory.
Seven different goal scorers accounted for the nine-goal outburst to lift the Swedes to victory with relative ease. Oilers d-man Larsson chipped in with his first assist and point of the tournament on Patric Hornqvist's second goal of the game in the middle frame to make it 5-0.
RECAP: SWE 9, NOR 1
After dropping their opening matchup against the Czech Republic, the Swedes have responded with two big offensive games, albeit against two lower-seeded teams in Italy (19) and Norway (9). Sweden now sits fourth in Group B standings and will look for their next victory when they take on Austria on Thursday, May 16 at 8:15am MT.
