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Meltzer's Musings: Updates on Flyers at Worlds

May 4, 2013, 8:35 AM ET [113 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
IIHF World Championship Updates

* Coming off a breakout season for the Flyers in the NHL, Jakub Voracek picked right up where he left off as he joined Team Czech Republic for its opening game at the 2013 IIHF World Championships. With the Czechs on 5-on-3 power play midway through the first period, Voracek skated in from the right half boards, received a pass from Radim Vbrata and ripped the puck high over Team Belarus goaltender Vitali Belinsky.

Belarus hung around until midway through the third period, when Vrbata added an insurance goal on a 5-on-4 power play to make it a 2-0 final. Voracek, who had eight shots on goal as well as making several clever passes to set up teammates, deserved Player of the Game honors. It went instead to Czech goaltender Alexander Salak, who had a 21-save shutout but not really tested all that much.

* Making his international debut yesterday for Team Sweden, Flyers defenseman Erik Gustafsson played a solid game despite his team suffering a 3-2 upset loss at the hands of Team Switzerland. Gustafsson kept things fairly simple and played without any major errors. He finished the game at plus-one.

After a scoreless (and rather dull) first period, the Swedes got sloppy early in the second period and paid the price on goals by Matthias Bieber and Nino Niederreiter. They never recovered from the two-goal deficit. Johan Fransson got one back late in the second period on a 5-on-3 power play goal. Tre Kronor wasn't able to find an equalizer in the third period. Ryan Gardner added an empty netter for the Swiss, rendering meaningless Simon Hjalmarsson's subsequent goal in the final half-minute.

* Phantoms forward Marcel Noebels made his senior-level debut yesterday for Team Germany. He played sparingly on the fourth line, skating 13 shifts and 8:09. The underdog Germans gave Finland quite a scrappy battle on the Finn's home ice at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena before Finland prevailed in overtime, 4-3.

The Finns opened up a pair of one goal leads, only to see the Germans come back and eventually take a short-lived 3-2 lead in the third period. Petri Kontiola forced overtime and then Veli-Matti Savinainen won the game at 1:58 of overtime.

A pair of former Flyers defensemen are starters on the Finnish blueline. Neither one is any stranger to international play. Lasse Kukkonen is Finland's team captain, while Ossi Väänänen is skating on the third defense pairing.

* Earlier today, Team USA opened its tournament schedule with a 5-3 win over Team Austria. Phantoms goaltender Cal Heeter was scratched as the third goalie, with Ben Bishop starting and World Junior Championship hero John Gibson dressing as the backup. The Americans actually trailed 2-1 after the first period but exploded for four goals in the middle period. Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson scored two goals for the USA, while David Moss, Tim Stapleton and Aaron Palushaj had one goal apiece.

TODAY'S GAMES (EDT)

9:15 AM Russia (Ilya Bryzgalov in net) vs.Latvia

10:15 AM Canada (Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Matt Read, Luke Schenn) vs. Denmark (Oliver Lauridsen)

2:15 PM Sweden (Gustafsson) vs. Czech Republic (Voracek)

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