Florida Panthers center Nick Bjugstad went scoreless with one shot on goal (his first of the tournament) while logging 11:16 minutes of ice time during Team USA’s 4-1 win over co-host Finland today in Helsinki. Bjugstad finished the game with a -1 rating and went 3/6 on faceoffs. Craig Smith notched three goals (one into an empty net) while Stephen Gionta netted the other US score. John Gibson made 31 saves in his first action of the tournament. Jarno Koskiranta scored the only goal for Finland which opened the scoring in the first period. The win gives the US nine points, good for second place in Group H and almost assures them of advancing out of the preliminary round.
Jacob Markstrom turned aside 20 shots to post his first win at the World Championship as Sweden knocked off Norway by a 5-1 count in Stockholm. Gabriel Landeskog and Loui Eriksson scored first period goals to stake Markstrom to a 2-0 lead. Norway’s Marius Holtet beat the Alien at 11:53 of the second period to make things interesting. Sweden put the game away in the third period on goals from Andreas Jamtin and Elias Falth. Landeskog scored another late in the game to complete the scoring. Sweden has now won three-straight after dropping its opener to Switzerland.
Marcel Goc went scoreless with three shots on goal while logging 16:50 minutes of ice time during Germany’s 2-0 victory over Austria today in Helsinki. Goc finished the game with an even rating and went 13/19 on faceoffs. The win kept Germany’s slim chance of advancing to the quarterfinal round alive. Marcus Kink scored both goals for Germany. The second was into an empty net with 9 ticks left on the clock. Rob Zepp made 27 stops to post the shutout while Bernhard Starkbaum took the loss for the Austria.
Thursday’s Preliminary Round/Day Seven Results
- Germany (Goc: 0Pts, even, 3SOG) over Austria, 2-0
- USA (Bjugstad: 0Pts, -1, 1SOG) over Finland, 4-1
- Sweden (Markstrom: 21SA 20SV) over Norway, 5-1
Tournament Stats Among Panthers Participants (through 05/09/13)
- Nick Bjugstad, F (USA): 4GP 2A 2Pts +1 1SOG
- Brian Campbell, D (CAN): 3GP 0Pts +6 9SOG
- Tomas Fleischmann, F (CZE): 3GP 0Pts -1 4SOG
- Marcel Goc, F (GER): 4GP 3A 3Pts -4 7SOG
- Tomas Kopecky, F (SVK): 3GP 1A 1Pts +1 5SOG
- Jacob Markstrom, G (SWE): 2GP 44SA 41SV 1-1-0
Friday’s Preliminary Round Matches (IIHF Website and live scoring)
- Slovakia (Kopecky) vs Austria, 9:15 am
- Czech Republic (Fleischmann) vs Solvenia 10:15 am
- Canada (Campbell) vs Belarus, 2:15 pm