You could hardly put together more diversely composed teams. The experienced Finns, who at an average age of 29 are the second-oldest selection in the tournament, come up against the Americans.
ONLINE: Finland – USAWe watch the opening duel of the basic group A online. |
On the contrary, they are the youngest of all the participants of the 87th World Championship with an average age of 24.5 years. Coach David Quinn therefore chooses a similar strategy to a year ago, when the United States lost in the duel for bronze against the Czech Republic. Also due to the lack of backs.
Back then, before the fight for third place, they faced Suomi twice unsuccessfully, namely in the group (1:4) and in the semifinals (3:4).
The American selection, among whose ranks this time the names of the experienced Nick Bonin from Pittsburgh and especially the productive Alex Tuch from Buffalo stand out the most, regularly brings medals and hopes for a better result this time. In the only preparatory duel, he played well against Germany (6:3).
The home team, on the other hand, played nine such games and lost five of them. They failed once against Denmark (0:2), they didn’t do very well either in the general round in the form of the Czech Games, where they got three points.
But now, in addition to experienced medalists, they also have the star Mikko Rantanen from Colorado or Kaap Kakka from the New York Rangers in the team.
MS 2023
Group A 12/05/2023 15:20
the match is in progress
Assemblies:
Larmi (Olkinuora) – Lehtonen, Ohtamaa, Määttä (A), Koivisto, Seppälä, Pokka, Friman, Matinpalo – Manninen, Hartikainen, Rantanen (A) – Armia, Suomela, Kakko – Kapanen, Sallinen, Lammikko – Anttila (C), Björninen, Oksanen.
Assemblies:
DeSmith (Petersen) – Perbix, Samberg, Thrun, Perunovich, Mackey, Hutson, Attard – Bonino (C), A. Tuch (A), Tynan – Eyssimont, Garland (A), O’Connor – Farrell, Mazur, Walker – Gauthier, Crown, Bjork – Grimaldi.
Referee: Bjork, Bloski – Ondráček, Synek
Go to the online report
With eight reinforcements from the NHL, the Swedes will try to break the record, when they did not make it past the quarterfinals three times in a row, and they even finished in the group last year. The most notable overseas signing will probably be Lucas Raymond from Detroit.
ONLINE: Sweden – GermanyYou can watch the match in detail from 19.20. |
With a great solo and a selfless pass in front of a half-open goal, he also shone at the Czech Games, where Tre Kronor collected five points. Together, they won seven out of nine races during the preseason.
They are meeting Germany in the championship for the first time in six years. However, the last experience they have with them in general dates back to 2018. And it was not pleasant, because then the outsider won 4:3 after extra time in the Olympic quarter-finals.
Since the Germans won silver in Pyeongchang, the line-up has changed significantly. Four players experienced memorable success, including Czech native Dominik Kahun. But the biggest star of the selection is fullback Moritz Seider, who changed his mind about the original rejection and will once again strengthen the national team as a Detroit player.
In addition to him, two other hockey players from the NHL will help – Nico Sturm (San Jose) and 21-year-old Jason Peterka (Buffalo).