The preliminary round of the 2015 IIHF World Championships wrapped up Tuesday with six games played over the course of the day. Four games needed extra time to find winners and determine the final standings in each group. Today we’ll look back at how each team has fared so far.
Canada and USA Finish Atop Group Standings at IIHF World Championships
GROUP A
Canada dominated Group A, as expected, and finished the preliminary round a perfect 7-0. Bringing perhaps their best roster to the World Championship in the last decade, Canada steamrolled the competition, leading all countries in scoring with 49 goals. With two 10 goal games, including one sans a resting Sidney Crosby, Canada is the deepest team in the tournament offensively and the easy favorite to win gold right now.
Sweden’s only loss came to Canada. However, the Swedes had a 3-0 lead in that game and let it slip away. You have to think that this team believes it can beat Canada if they meet again. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is leading all defensemen in the tournament with 11 points.
As the host nation, the Czech Republic has shown the world how passionate their fans are. This year’s tournament is on pace to be the highest attended World Championship in history. The Czech team lost to Sweden and Canada, but has appeared to get better as the tournament continues. The ageless Jaromir Jagr has led the team with 4 goals.
Switzerland has been able to compete with almost every team, but with four overtime losses they haven’t found a way to put teams away. Goaltender Leonardo Genoni has the best SV% and GAA in the tournament, and if the Swiss expect to win in the knockout rounds he’ll have to continue to be their best player.
Germany managed to play Sweden and the Czech Republic tough, but got killed by Canada and lost to the eventual relegated Austria. Most North American fans were disappointed that Leon Draisaitl wasn’t able to play for the Germans in this tournament.
France was on the brink of relegation in their final game against Latvia before mounting a comeback from a two goal deficit to send the game to overtime, where they managed a shootout victory. If Stephane da Costa had been healthy for the French, the team may have fared slightly better.
With their OT loss to France, Latvia at least avoided relegation. The Latvians brought some of the loudest and most passionate fans to the tournament. Unfortunately, the fans couldn’t will the team’s offense into scoring more.
This marks the 11th straight year that Austria has moved up or down in relegation. Without some of their names Austria had a limited roster and only managed to score 10 goals.
GROUP B
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament has been the play of the United States. It was hard not to be underwhelmed when the team announced their roster, consisting of two AHL goalies and a top line center who played in the NCAA this season. However, the U.S. managed to win all but one game and heads to the knockout rounds as the top seed in Group B. Brock Nelson has been the best player for the team and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has proven that the hype around him is for real.
Aside from a sloppy first game loss to the U.S., Finland has been strong on defense and in goal. Strong might be an understatement in goal, as Pekka Rinne broke the World Championship record for consecutive shutout minutes at 237 over the course of five games.
Russia came into this tournament as one of the favorites thanks to their outstanding forward group. While the team did lead Group B in goals with 30, two losses in the preliminary round has to concern Russian fans. Sergei Bobrovsky has been solid in net, but the defense has been notably absent, especially when contributing on offense.
Belarus was the only team in Group B to beat the Americans which seemed to shock some North American fans. However, half of the Belarusian roster plays together for the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk and they have notable chemistry together. Captain Alexei Kalyuzhny has been one of the best offensive players in the tournament with 10 points.
Playing all their games in Ostrava, Slovakia had a mostly home crowd each game. However, what the team needed was someone other than Marian Gaborik show up on offense. With only one decent line all tournament, Slovakia couldn’t find a way to beat the better teams this year.
Norway showed some fight against USA and Belarus, while also pulling off a win against Slovakia. KHL veterans Mathis Olimb and Patrick Thoresen played well for the Norwegians, but much like a lot of the smaller nations, Norway just didn’t have the depth to compete.
Denmark played hard in a couple big games versus the U.S. and Slovakia, however, they came away with nothing to show for it. The Danes only scored 10 goals all tournament. The lone bright spot on the team was goaltender Sebastian Dahm who finished with a 2.22 GAA.
Slovenia will end up being relegated after a rather pathetic showing. With only nine goals, the Slovenians were the most offensively challenged team in the tournament. Anze Kopitar helped contribute to four of the team’s nine goals.
Check back tomorrow as we preview the upcoming knockout rounds.
