IIHF World Championships: All 9 Predators advance through the prelims
It’s been a strong showing so far for the Predators at the IIHF World Championships.
All nine of the Predators players representing their countries have advanced out of the tournament’s preliminary stage and into the quarterfinals.
In Group A, Team Canada finished in the top spot with a perfect 7-0-0-0 record, followed by Team Sweden (4-2-0-1), the Czech Republic (4-1-1-1), and Switzerland (4-2-0-1).
In group B, Team U.S.A finished atop the group with a 5-1-0-1 record, followed by Finland (4-2-0-1), Russia (4-1-1-1), and Belarus (4-0-2-1).
The first quarterfinal matchup will take place when Seth Jones, Jimmy Vesey, Steve Moses, and Team U.S.A take on Roman Josi, Kevin Fiala, and team Switzerland Thursday at 8:15 a.m. CT. Jones is consistently among the team leaders in ice-time this tournament, and is tied for second on the team in points (3). For the Swiss, Josi and Fiala each rank second on their team in points (3) and both will be looking to add to those totals.
The winner of that game will go on to face the winner of the second quarterfinal matchup, which will feature Filip Forsberg, Mattias Ekholm and Team Sweden taking on Team Russia. In his first senior-level tournament, Forsberg has already tallied a hat trick against Austria, as well as another multi-goal performance against France. The young winger leads the tournament with eight goals scored, and ranks in the tournament’s top-10 in points (9) and shots on goal (22). That game is set to take place Thursday at 12:15 p.m. CT.
Finally, the quarterfinal matchup between Finland and the Czech Republic will feature Predators’ goaltender and Vezina Trophy finalist Pekka Rinne, along with backup goalie Juuse Saros (the Preds’ 4th pick in the 2013 NHL-entry draft). Rinne leads the tournament in both goals against average (1.30) and shutouts (3), while also ranking second in save percentage (.941), and ice-time (368:15). That game is set to take place Thursday at 1:15 p.m. CT with the winner taking on the winner of the game between Canada and Belarus.
