1
15:21
game start Into the game!
15:21
: For the small Baltic nation, Elvis Merzikins begins in the box. Munich goalie Henrik Haukeland is between the posts for the Scandinavians.
1
15:20
: The third match day of the group stage in Helsinki Ice Hall is underway! Linus Ohlund and Andris Ansons are the main referees this time, Elias Seewald and Emil Yletyinen support as linesperson.
1
15:20
: game start
15:19
: the Starting Six of the two nations are being announced: Adam Huska, Mislav Rosandič, Peter Čerešňák, Kristián Pospíšil, Michal Krištof and Tomáš Tatar will start for Slovakia. Logan Thompson, Zach Whitecloud, Thomas Chabot, Dylan Cozens, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Nicolas Roy are responsible for the Canadians’ first change.
15:17
: All in all, an open, exciting and close game awaits us on paper. Two teams at a similar level are chasing points. In the event of a win, Norway would first overtake the Czech Republic and take fourth place. Should the Latvians prevail, they would outperform Great Britain, Austria and Norway.
15:10
: On the Norwegian side, the first counters are already on the account. After the clear 5-0 defeat against Finland, there was a duel with Great Britain yesterday. And in this one it looked like a sovereign victory against the British for 52 minutes. But in the furious final minutes, they conjured up three goals out of a hat, so it went into overtime. The decision was made in the penalty shootout, which Norway won. Whether these two points mean a boost for self-confidence is questionable in any case due to the course of the game. Maybe the Scandinavians can show a concentrated performance over the whole 60 minutes today.
15:02
: Latvia currently sits at the bottom of Group B without any points. The opening game saw a clear 4-1 draw against the USA, in which the US team dominated. Then on Saturday there was a crime thriller against Finland, which was narrowly lost 2-1 after taking the lead. Harjis Vītoliņš’s team will not panic about the placement just yet – there are still groundbreaking duels to come. Among other things today: The first points should be scored against the Norwegians, who are not among the favourites.
14:59
: Slovakia also wants to at least make it into the quarter-finals, but Craig Ramsay’s team must be among the top four in their group at the end of the preliminary round – failing this would be a bitter disappointment for the 2002 world champions. After a successful start to the tournament against France (4:2), the Olympic bronze medalist had to cope with the first bankruptcy against Germany (1:2). However, the Eastern Europeans suffered from a poor conversion of chances, which is why they could not get anything countable in a hard-fought game.
14:52
: On the fourth day of the Ice Hockey World Championships, Latvia and Norway will face off on the ice. In the strong group B there is supposedly no way around the big nations Finland, Sweden, USA and the Czech Republic. Norway need every point to keep a chance to reach the quarterfinals. In addition, you need to win against the top teams. And the Latvians? They are more worried about relegation to the B division and will do everything to leave last place by winning.
14:47
: The team of head coach Claude Julien has already finished the duel with Germany and achieved an unchallenged 5:3 victory on Friday. Yesterday there was a mandatory win (6:1) against the Italians, but Canada didn’t go as fast as they could and probably managed to save a lot of energy. Apparently the defending champion is prepared for the upcoming tasks. Against Slovakia, however, an increase in performance is certainly required if the tournament start and the third win in the third game is to work out.
14:38
: In the meantime, all nations have played two games, which is why the first tendencies can be seen in the preliminary round. The Canadian team, as record world champions and defending champions, is the hottest contender for group victory anyway and is on the right track after two victories at the start of the tournament. Only because of the slightly worse goal difference are the North Americans currently in second place behind Switzerland. On the other hand, Slovakia had to accept the first small setback against Germany on Saturday.
14:30
: Hello and welcome to the Ice Hockey World Championship 2022 in Finland! In Group A, Canada will want to make the perfect start to the tournament against Slovakia. At 3:20 p.m. the first face-off will be played in the Helsinki Ice Hall.