The 2015 IIHF World Championships are officially underway in the Czech Republic, split between the cities of Prague and Ostrava (the hometown of Stars prospect Matej Stransky, as a fun fact), and a number of Dallas Stars players are taking part.
For information regarding results, stats, and videos, visit the official IIHF website.
Here’s a breakdown of how each Stars player is doing so far, separated by the countries that they are representing:
Canada
Jason Spezza has a pretty sweet gig in this tournament, playing on a line with Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Spezza scored two goals and an assist in Canada’s opening game, a 6-1 rout over Latvia. However, he only played a total of 12:07 in their second game as Canadian head coach Todd McLellan mostly used his lower-line players during a 10-0 victory over an outmatched Germany team.
One of those players was Cody Eakin. Eaken didn’t play much in Canada’s first game, but was given more ice time in game two and responded with two goals. Video footage can be found below:
Surprisingly quiet in Canada’s first two games? Tyler Seguin. Seguin has yet to register a point so far, and only has four shots on goal. Perhaps he’s taking things nice and easy and he still recovers from the knee injury that he sustained back in February.
Sweden
John Klingberg continues his fantastic rookie season now as a member of the Swedish team. He has one point so far, an assist in their first game on a 5-5 game-tying goal against the Czech Republic with less than a minute remaining in regulation. Sweden would eventually win the game in the shootout.
Jhonas Enroth started that game for Sweden, stopping 23 shots on the 28 that he faced.
France
Antoine Roussel was a bonafide hero for France in last year’s tournament, scoring 11 points in eight games, but hasn’t had the same success so far this year. He’s pointless through two games, and was given a game misconduct early in the second game for what was listed as an “abuse of official.” There’s a chance that Roussel might receive some kind of suspension for the incident.
Finland
Two of Dallas’ young defensive prospects, Jyrki Jokipakka and Esa Lindell, are taking part in this tournament. Jokipakka scored Finland’s only goal in their opening 5-1 loss to the United States, while Lindell had an assist in Finland’s 3-0 win over Denmark on Sunday. Lindell is currently leading his team in shots, with eight. The assist can be seen around the 1:10 mark of the video below:
United States
Jack Campbell is a member of Team USA, but is currently occupying a backup role on the team and has yet to start a game.