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2015 IIHF World Championship Update: USA And Canada Move On, Sweden And Finland Eliminated

Defending Big D’s coverage of the 2015 IIHF World Championship continues again today with another update. The Dallas Stars had nine of their players participating at the start of the tournament, but that number was officially whittled down to four by the end of Thursday’s quarterfinal games.

For information regarding results, stats, and videos, visit the official IIHF website.

Here’s a breakdown of how each Stars player is doing, or did, separated by the countries that they are representing:

Canada

The stacked Canadian team continues to roll on, advancing to the semifinals with a 9-0 steamrolling over the badly mismatched Belarus.

Tyler Seguin’s torrid scoring pace continues after notching a hat trick, and he is now tied with Filip Forsberg for the tournament lead in goals with eight.

“I think for me personally, I started off the tournament not getting bounces,” Seguin said after the game. “I’m obviously more happy when they go in. We’re not the team that started out back in Vienna and Austria some 20 days ago. We’ve gotten better every day. We’ve grown as a team. We’ve come together, and we’re going to try to continue doing that.”

Jason Spezza recorded a goal and an assist, and now has sole possession of the tournament lead in points with 13 through eight games. Not too shabby at all for a “second line center.”

Cody Eakin played 11:51 in the win, but did not register a point.

Sweden
John Klingberg had a goal and an assist on Thursday, but it wasn’t enough to help his team to victory as Sweden fell to Russia by a score of 5-3.

Klingberg was strong all tournament long, and finished with six points and a +9 rating in seven games. It was a fantastic showing for him on international ice, and should help his case to play for his home country again in the World Cup Of Hockey in 2016.

Jhonas Enroth was the best goalie back in the 2013 World Championship, but had a much tougher go of things this time around. He was pulled in the second period after allowing three goals to Russia and finished with a forgettable .876 save percentage overall.

Finland

Dallas’ two other young defenders, Esa Lindell and Jyrki Jokipakka, were also eliminated on Thursday when Finland was taken down by the Czech Republic, 5-3.

Lindell played 18:15 against the Czechs and finished with a +1 rating. He ends the tournament with six points in eight games, which is pretty darn impressive for a 20 year-old defenseman.

Jokipakka had a quieter World Championship in comparison. He only had 8:58 of ice time in his last game and finished with a modest two points overall. Still, not too bad of a showing for the 23 year-old.

United States

The United States earned a solid 3-1 win over Switzerland to advance to the semifinals thanks to goals by Jake Gardiner, Charlie Coyle and Ben Smith. Jack Campbell was dressed for the game, but played backup to Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 21 out of 22 shots against.

France

France failed to make it out of the preliminary games, so Antoine Roussel did not play on Thursday.

He finished the tournament with two assists and 34 penalty minutes in seven games.

Saturday’s Semifinal Matchups:

-Canada versus the Czech Republic

-United States versus Russia

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