Round One Draws to a Close

Three more games in the books, one a solid effort on both sides, one a historically bad powerplay performance, and one was a back and forth match for the ages.

The Czech Republic blanked Latvia 2-0 on goals by Pavel Kubina and Jaromir Jagr. The Czech's dominated the pace of the game and it could've been much worse if any of their several post shots gone in, but the underdog Latvians held their own and made things interesting.

Belarus also made things interesting, but for other reasons. The team went into this year's tournament with a reputation as giant killers after taking down the number 3 seeded United States last year. When two foolish penalties by Finland put them at a 5-3 advantage it looked as if they were well on their way to slaying another giant. Two minutes later, however, it was Belarus who looked foolish as they struggled to even get a shot off. Finland used the momentum to quickly score a goal and put themselves up 1-0. Despite the fact that Finland couldn't keep themselves out of the penalty box, Belarus was unable to score a powerplay goal. In fact, Finland outscored Belarus 2-0 while Belarus was on the powerplay thanks to 2 shorthanded goals. The Belarus team was unavailable for comment as they quickly left the stadium, but their embarrassed (and likely soon to be fired) coach could be seen screaming at his players all the way to the bus.

In the final game of the day we finally got to witness the first upset of the year. The number 10 seeded Norway team will be advancing while the number 7 seeded Slovakian team will be going home thanks to a Per-Age Skroder goal in double OT gave Norway a 4-3 victory. A quick 2-0 lead put Norway in the driver's seat, but Marian Hossa hoisted the Slovakian team on his shoulders and scored 3 unanswered goals to put his team up 3-2. The hat trick wasn't enough, however as Norway's captain, Patrick Thoresen's goal tied things up with seconds left on the clock.

The final game of the first round will feature the 8th seeded Switzerland team versus the 9th seeded Germans. And there are rumors that round 2 of the tournament will switch to a best of 3 format.