Nick Bjugstad of the Florida Panthers picked up two assists in his IIHF Wold Championship debut Saturday in Helsinki as Team USA rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Austria 5-3. Bjugstad set up a goal by Erik Johnson which tied the score at 2-2 and later assisted on the fourth US goal by Aaron Palushaj which ended up being the game-winner. Both goals were scored with the US at even-strength. He was on the ice for the second goal by Austria in the first period. Bjugstad logged 10:39 minutes of ice, finished with a +1 rating, went 2/6 on faceoffs and had no shots on goal
On Sunday, Bjugstad again skated on the fourth line with Palushaj and Danny Kristo as the US beat Latvia by a 4-1 count. He logged 8:27 minutes of ice time, had no shots on goal, went 2/8 on faceoffs and finished with an even rating. Arturs Kalda scored in the second period to give Latvia the lead before Tim Stapleton, David Moss, Bobby Butler and Matt Hunwick tallied for the US. Ben Bishop picked up his second win of the tournament in goal for the Americans.
Brian Campbell went pointless while logging 20:19 minutes of ice time during Canada’s 3-1 victory over Denmark Saturday in Stockholm. The Cats defender finished with four shots on a goal and +2 rating. Matt Duchene scored twice and Steven Stamkos also scored for Canada to offset Morten Green’s game-opening goal for the Danes. Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 shots to post the win in goal.
Canada was upset Sunday 3-2 in a shootout by pesky Switzerland. Campbell played a team-leading 22:25 and finished with one shot on goal and +1 rating. Andrew Ladd and Matt Read scored for Canada while Denis Hollenstein and Nino Niederreiter replied for Switzerland in regulation. Reto Suri got the winner by Mike Smith in the shootout.
Tomas Kopecky logged 15:42 of first line duty for Slovakia in a 2-0 loss to Finland in Helsinki on Saturday. The Panthers forward finished with three shots on goal and an even rating. He was called for an interference minor in the first period. Juhamatti Aaltonen and Petri Kontiola scored the goals while Antti Raanta posted the 36-save shutout for the Finns. The loss dropped the Slovaks to 1-1 in the tournament.
Tomas Fleischmann had no shots on goal and finished with an even rating in the Czech Republic’s 2-1 loss to Sweden in Stockholm on Saturday. The Florida forward logged 15:54 minutes of ice time. Jimmie Ericsson and Henrik Tallinder scored to give Sweden a 2-0 lead before Jiri Hudler got one back for the Czechs. Jhonas Enroth got the start and win for Sweden. Jacob Markstrom backed up Enroth. Both teams are now 1-1 in the tournament.
Marcel Goc finished with a -3 rating and two shots on goal as Germany fell to Russia 4-1 on Sunday in Helsinki. The Panthers center went 11/23 on faceoffs. Ilya Kovalchuk notched a hat trick for the Russians. Denis Kokarev scored the other goal for Russia while John Tripp provided the only score for the Germans. Russia is now 2-0 while Germany is still looking for its first win.