Plenty of drama on Day 1

Slovakia leads group A1 as the only team that managed to win in regulation time on opening day.

“Of course we wanted to win the opening game and kick off the tournament with three points. We succeeded and that’s good,” said Patrik Svitana, who scored the winning goal in Slovakia’s 3-1 win. The Slovaks have won the last two championships and have their sights set on a third. “Even though it’s still the first day, we all have one goal on our mind. We want the hat-trick and I hope we get it.”

Group A1’s late game between Greece and Canada surprisingly went to a shootout, where Canada finally prevailed 4-3. "A couple years ago, in Switzerland, they actually beat Team Canada, so there was a little bit of revenge in our minds," Canadian coach Ian Mooewa noted. "To get the first win with the extra point it is big for us. In next game, we have to stay out of the penalty box."

Meanwhile, in Group AB’s only game, the Czechs asserted themselves on their home floor, beating Switzerland 6-0 before an appreciative crowd.

“We wanted to play our game and go for the opening goal,” said Radim Stepanik, who helped his team’s cause with two goals and one assist. “We didn’t have any specific instructions towards Switzerland as an opponent. We just focused on our own performance, which we want to have stable for the rest of the tournament.”

The B tournament saw a three very dramatic games. In Group B1’s only game, France needed a last-minute goal to edge France 4-3.

“At the end, there was misunderstanding at the blue line, which led to the winning goal,” Britain forward Vlad Porubsky said of the late game-winner by France’s Dominic Martel. “I thought my teammate got the ball and he thought I had it. It was all about the penalties, and penalty killing. So that is what we´ll have to be aware of in the next game. And we have to work on our defence also.”

Meanwhile, Group B2 saw a pair of comebacks. Haiti scored three straight third-period goals to beat Caribbean rivals the Cayman Islands 7-5, and Hong Kong erased a late 3-0 deficit to Armenia to force a shootout - which Armenia finally won.

Haiti’s comeback was cheered on by a large contingent of local fans, which was appreciated by the team’s coaching staff: “It means a lot to us. We came by ourselves, we’re far from home, but the people have adopted us in a warm manner and we’d like to say ‘thank you’ to the people of Pardubice and we look forward to having a good tournament.”

Individual performances

Armenia´s Yeghia Der Ohanessian figured in on all four of his team´s goals and is the tournament leader after Day 1 with three goals and four points.

"It is special," Ohanessian said after his big day. "It is my first win at this level with this team, so it is very special. With the penalty shot, I practice that a lot and usually I go into forehand, but this time I decided to go with backhand and as it hit the post, I could not hold the emotions anymore. Usually I do not celebrate the penalty shot goal as much. I just let it all out, it was fun today."

In addition, two players registered three points on Thursday - Czech forward Stepanik and Cayman defenceman Chris Yeramian. Stepanik and French forward Norbert Abramov each scored two goals on the day.

In goal, Lukas Heczko recorded the day’s only shutout, but he only needed to make 13 saves against Switzerland. The busiest goalie was Slovak Stanislav Petrik, who stopped 30 of 31 shots from India.

Friday’s schedule

08:30 Cayman Islands – Armenia (Tipsport arena) Stream Live ticker
11:00 Portugal – USA (Tipsport arena) Stream Live ticker
12:30 Great Britain – Lebanon (Small Hall) Stream Live ticker
13:30 India – Greece (Tipsport arena) Stream Live ticker
15:00 Bermuda – France (Small Hall) Stream Live ticker
16:00 Finland – Slovakia (Tipsport arena) Stream Live ticker
19:00 Italy – Czech Republic (Tipsport arena) Stream Live ticker