Catching up…
It’s a long tournament as these things go, the World Championship, especially under the current format. But it’s getting a lot shorter for the United States after Thursday morning’s 6-5 loss to Latvia (Brock Nelson had two, and Herberts Vasiljevs got what turned out to be the winner) and a 4-3 overtime win Friday against Kazakhstan (Matt Donovan scored one).
The U.S. sits fourth for the moment, and the top four in each group make the quarters. Belarus and Germany each have a game in hand, but it’s against each other Saturday, and if that ends in regulation, the U.S. will be in a dogfight with games against Finland and Germany. Win, and they’re fine. Lose, and we’re likely sorting out placement.
Belarus lost to Finland Thursday. Finland needed a shootout but beat the Swiss Friday.
In the other group, Canada rolled past Denmark in the third Thursday, then rolled past Italy Friday (losing Alex Burrows to injury). Sweden also won twice, beating battling France and Slovakia. Anders Nilsson stopped a combined 37 of 39.
| Name, Country | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | +/- | SOG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brock Nelson, USA | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8 | +2 | 15 |
| Herberts Vasiljevs, LAT | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | E | 2 |
| Matt Donovan, USA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 3 |
| Colin McDonald, USA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 4 |
| Mikko Koskinen, FIN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
| Tomas Marcinko, SVK | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 4 |
| Anders Nilsson, SWE | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
| Name, Country | GP | W-L | MP | GA | Svs | Sv Pct | GAA |
| Anders Nilsson, SWE | 5 | 3-2 | 305:00 | 6 | 101 | .944 | 1.18 |
| Mikko Koskinen, FIN | 1 | 0-1 | 58:12 | 4 | 22 | .846 | 4.12 |