Finland defeats Latvia and Germany wins Slovakia in the hockey world
TAMPERE – Host Finland recovered from the fear of the first period and won Latvia 2-1 and won the second win in two games at the World Hockey Championships on Saturday.
Mikael Granlund won 2:52 in the final set of the Tampere B-block game. Rudolfs Balcers took Latvia to the 1-0 lead in the opening period, after which Sakari Manninen equalized the middle frame with force. Manninen added a pass to Granlund.
Finland, which finished second in last year’s tournament, closed Norway 5-0 on Friday and Latvia lost 4-1 to the United States.
Germany lost to Canada the day before, defeating Slovakia 2-1 in Group A in Helsinki. Matthias Plachta and Leonhard Pfoderl got the Germans a 2-0 advantage when Kristian Pospisil answered with the only goal in Slovakia.
In Group B, Sweden had only three lines left in the opening against Austria, as the team awaited the results of the NHL playoffs to complete the list along with the Swedish league players, whose playoffs only ended on Thursday.
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Joel Kellman, Max Friberg and Joakim Nordstrom each scored a 3-1 victory against a team that, along with France, replaced Russia and Belarus.
In their opening match, the Czech Republic survived Britain 5-1 in the second Group B game. Matej Blumel led the Czechs with two goals and a pass.
Also in Group A, Joachim Blichfeld made a hat trick and Nikolaj Ehlers gave three assists to Denmark to start the tournament, knocking Kazakhstan 9-1.
The three-goal lead after the first period, when Jonas Siegenthaler assisted everyone, took Switzerland to a 5-2 victory in their Italian opening match in Group A.
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