Eurolanche

2017 IIHF Worlds: Day 1

Players from the Colorado Avalanche organization were involved in each of the four games played during the first game day of the 2017 IIHF World Championship.

Finland – Belarus 3:2 (2:0, 0:1, 1:1)

3. Aho (Fippula), 6. Osala, 50. Savinainen (Rantanen, Aho) – 39. Shangarovich (Stefanovich), 45. Kovyrshin (Graborenko, A. Kostitsyn)

In what should’ve been an easy opening game of this year’s World Championship, Finland and Avs forward Mikko Rantanen barely edged a feisty Belarussian team. After jumping to an early 2-0 lead, the Finns found themselves involved in a tie game after Belarus tied the game with two goals in 6 minutes. Ultimately, Finland regained the lead midway through the third period, with Rantanen recording an assist on the eventual game-winning goal.Sweden – Russia 1:2 after SO (1:0, 0:0, 0:1, 0:0, 0:1)

15. Lindholm (Rask, Hedman) – 44. Andronov (Barabanov, Provorov), shootout-winning goal – Panarin

A total of three Avalanche players appeared in this game – captain Gabriel Landeskog, forward Carl Soderberg and defensive prospect Andrei Mironov. Both Swedes failed to make a significant impact on the game and Mironov’s performance was rather mediocre.

Czech Republic – Canada 1:4 (0:1, 0:1, 1:2)

53. Radil (Kovar, Voracek) – 7. O’Reilly (Scheifele, Barrie), 21. Matheson (Skinner, Giroux), 55. Barrie (Konecny), 59. Skinner

The defending champions got off to a great start, as goalie Calvin Pickard put on a clinic in net and only allowed one goal to earn the Canadians a win in their opening game. Defenseman Tyson Barrie got on the scoresheet with an assist on the game’s opening goal, as well as scoring Team Canada’s third goal with five minutes left in regulation. Both Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene failed to get on the scoresheet.

USA – Germany 1:2 (0:1, 0:0, 1:1)

51. Murphy (Larkin) – 11. Rieder (Reimer, Kahun), 54. Hager (D. Seidenberg, Goggulla)

Team USA got off to a disappointing start, as they fell to the German hosts following a rather disappointing performance. Although they tied the game midway through the third period, the Germans answered right back and never looked back en route to a surprising win. JT Compher finished the game without a point.