After three days, all 16 teams at the World Championship have now played two games. Three players from CHL clubs – Mattias Sjogren, Vladimir Dravecky and Jakub Nakladal – now have three points.

by Derek O'Brien, with contributions from Staff Writers

PRAGUE and OSTRAVA – On Sunday, 12 teams were playing their second games of the tournament, starting in Prague with Sweden and Austria. The Swedes got an overtime win in their opener against the Czech Republic, thanks in part to a late tying goal by Linkoping HC's Mattias Sjogren, while Austria got a shootout win over Switzerland. This game it was all Sweden, who were led by a hat-trick from Filip Forsberg and got a 6–1 win to temporarily move into the lead in Group A.

“We weren't entirely happy with our first game and we expected more from ourselves today,” Sjogren said afterward. “(Austria is) a hardworking team and they came out strong, it took us a while to get going. We had to match their effort and win the one-on-one battles, get possession of the puck and be more creative with it – that made the difference.”

After two points in the first game, Sjogren picked up another assist on Sunday, thanks to some hard work behind the net, then feeding Oscar Klefbom in front for the 2–0 goal late in the first period. That gives him three points in two games, after being held pointless in last year's tournament in Minsk. 

“Of course it feels good. I have a defensive role on this team, as I did last year, but still it feels good to contribute on offence too.”

At the same time in Ostrava, Slovenia fell behind early against Russia, giving up two goals in the first five minutes, but then made a game of it. The final score was a very respectable 5–3 against one of the pre-tournament favourites, but the Slovenes are still without a point after two games.

“It was the same mistakes as yesterday, we started too soft,” said Robert Sabolic of Sparta Prague, who scored Slovenia's third goal late in the game. “When you get behind a couple goals it's hard to play, especially against a team like Russia. I think we played okay after that, but for the next game we have to start better.”

Later in the afternoon, Canada regained the lead in Group A in Prague with a dominant 10–0 drubbing of Germany that saw the day's second hat-trick, courtesy Taylor Hall. At the same time in Ostrava, Slovakia picked up their second straight win in extra time, as Andrej Meszaros scored both goals in a 2–1 overtime win over Belarus. Vladimir Dravecky of Ocelari Trinec assisted on his first goal, the equalizer with 7:29 left in the third period.

In the evening games, Finland got their first win of the tournament, 3–0 over Denmark, with Janne Pesonen of Skelleftea AIK scoring the second goal. Meanwhile in Prague, France fell behind Switzerland 2–0, then tried to battle back but only got one goal and fell 2–1 for the second-straight game, leaving them still looking for their first points. 

“We were short-handed and had to kill penalties and they scored on one of them,” said French alternate captain Yorick Treille, who played last season for French regular-season champions and CHL wild-cards Grenoble Bruleurs de Loups. “That's hockey, but we tried to put our frustration aside and stay focused. We gave everything we had and came up a little short, but I'm proud of the guys – how we competed and battled.”

With all teams having played two games so far, three players from CHL clubs have three points so far: Sjogren, Dravecky, and Czech defenceman Jakub Nakladal of TPS Turku.