FIN vs. CAN
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LATVIA 3, GERMANY 1
Leon Draisaitl continues to produce points at an impressive pace at the 2018 IIHF World Championship, but his German squad suffered a tough 3-1 defeat to Latvia on Saturday at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning.
The Oilers forward assisted on Dominik Kahun's goal towards the midway point of the third period to cut Latvia's lead to 3-1, but neither squad found the back of the net from that point on.
Ronalds Kenins tallied the lone goal of the opening two frames to spot his team a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes, leading to goals by Guntis Galvins and Andris Dzerins to start the third period. Dzerins also assisted on Galvins' goal to earn himself a two-point performance.
Elvis Merzlikins left the building with the win between the pipes for Latvia, turning aside 33 of Germany's 34 shots, four of which came from the stick of Draisaitl.
Leon's assist brought his tournament total up to two goals and seven helpers through five games. Unfortunately for the Oilers forward, he was dinged with a two-minute minor and 10-minute misconduct for a check to the head late in the first period vs. Latvia.
Germany is currently sixth in Group B with five points, three back of Denmark and four behind Latvia. They face Finland on Sunday and Canada on Tuesday, needing to accumulate several points to have a shot at a quarterfinal berth.
SLOVAKIA 3, SWEDEN 4 (OT)
Sweden continued their dominance at the World Championship, needing overtime to defeat Andrej Sekera and Slovakia 4-3 to put pressure on Russia in the Group A standings.
The Swedes are four points up on the Russians, who play Switzerland later this afternoon. Last year's champions could do Slovakia a favour with a regulation win over the Swiss to keep them one point off the quarters with two crucial games to play.
Slovakia knew points against the group leaders would prove vital and jumped out to a first-period lead when Tomas Jurco deflected Mario Grman's point shot halfway through the frame. But an immediate response from Sweden with goals from Dennis Everberg and Gustav Nyquist meant the Slovaks would trail 2-1 heading into the second period.
It didn't start much better in the second when Jacob de la Rose finished off a nice passing play with Mikael Wikstrand and Adrian Kempe to double the Swedes' lead. After Marek Daloga pulled a goal back for Slovakia before the second-period break, they worked quickly off a neutral-zone faceoff for Ladislav Nagy to tie the game on the 2-on-1 with Michal Kristof with 13:06 left in regulation.
But the comeback fell short for Slovakia, with Sweden's leading scorer Rickard Rakell working the give-and-go on the odd-man rush with Mika Zibanejad, who sealed the points for the Group A leaders with 0:42 left in the extra frame.
Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson put in a Player of the Game performance in his 23:55 of ice time for Sweden.
DENMARK 3, KOREA 1
That's three-straight wins for the hosts and a big step towards a first-ever quarter-final berth.
Korea held their own for half the game, scoring a second-period equalizer through Kisung Kim, but the Danes made the most out of the occasion with goals from Frans Nielsen, Jesper Jensen and Nichlas Hardt for the 3-1 win and a temporary hold on second in Group B with two extra games played on Canada.
A true relegation battle awaits the Koreans in their final match of the round robin against Norway, with both teams sitting at the bottom of the group on zero and three points, respectively.
The Koreans need a win in regulation to stand any chance of staying in Division I, while Denmark's final match with Latvia could spell the first progression for the Danes to the elimination stages of the World Championship in the nation's history.
CANADA 1, FINLAND 5
Finland were clinical in a one-sided 5-1 win over Canada, who failed to find its rhythm in a game marred with defensive mistakes and undisciplined penalties.
Canada created their own disadvantage 8:50 into the first period when Mikko Rantanen's netbound pass was deflected in front by Brayden Schenn through the legs of Curtis McElhinney, whose day in goal wasn't about to get much better.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau equalized for Canada two minutes later, but it was shortlived after Janne Pesonen put Finland back up on the powerplay. Rantanen then flipped in his second of the game and Finland's second with the man advantage after McElhinney lost an edge in the crease, leading to him being pulled in favour of Darcy Kuemper with 3:25 left in the opening frame.
Canada held the edge for large chunks of the second period, but carried on its trend of penalties. Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tried to generate offence between six shorthanded minutes for the Canadians and two minutes of 4-on-4 time in a scoreless second 20 minutes.
Kuemper's relief effort was compromised by Finland 5:37 into the third period in a span of 10 seconds when a bad day at the office for Canada's goalies got worse. The Arizona Coyotes netminder handed a goal to Eeli Tolvanen off a bad outlet pass from the goal line before Teuvo Teravainen tied the tournament lead in scoring with his fifth goal and 12th point to seal a 5-1 victory before the Canadians had a chance to reset.
The Canadians reset with a day off Sunday before finishing their tournament off with games against Latvia and Germany. Finland were inpressive in their last big test before the quarter-finals as they look to hold on to top spot in Group B against Germany and the United States.
