World Championships Update: 8 Flyers Advance to Tournament Round

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The group play is officially over with play completed on Tuesday and this sets the stage for the quarterfinal round set to take place on Thursday.

Eight of the Flyers nine participants are advancing to the tournament round. Here’s how the players on each team have fared so far.

Canada – Sean Couturier has played a solid tournament doing many of the little things that make a team successful. He hasn’t factored into the scoring much with just a goal and two assists in seven games, but he has contributed with excellent defensive play. Carter Hart started three games in the preliminary round and won all three. His first game was a 12-save shutout against Great Britain. His second was a 5-2 win over France where he stopped 23 of 25 shots. Hart made 22 saves in the first 50 minutes of Canada’s 5-0 win over Denmark before being removed from the game to give Canada’s No. 3 netminder Mackenzie Blackwood his first action of the tournament. Hart is behind Matt Murray on the depth chart, so he may not see the ice for the rest of the tournament, but he was solid with a 0.70 GAA and .964 save percentage. Phil Myers joined Canada midway through the tournament due to injuries and has one assist in four games.

USA – It’s been a pretty solid tournament for James van Riemsdyk, who has two goals and three assists for five points in seven games. JVR has remained a netfront presence throughout the tournament, but has also had moments where he showed off some skill moves.

Sweden – Oskar Lindblom got off to a hot start in the tournament with points in each of the first four games — three goals, one assist — but has cooled since and saw limited playing time in Sweden's final game against Russia. Robert Hagg has dressed in every game, but didn’t play a shift in the last three as the team’s seventh defenseman.

Czech Republic – Jake Voracek has been one of the best players in the tournament with three goals and 12 assists for 15 points in seven games, tied for second in the tournament with Russia’s Nikita Kucherov and trailing only Sweden’s William Nylander. Radko Gudas had four points, one goal and three assists, in the seven games. Czech Republic posted six wins and one regulation loss in group play, finishing second in Group B.

Austria – Michael Raffl was easily Austria’s best player, scoring four goals in six games. Austria failed to get a win in the tournament, losing six games in regulation and one in a shootout.

The quarterfinals will take place on Thursday. Canada will face Switzerland and Russia will face USA in the early games at 10:15 a.m. Finland will face Sweden and Czech Republic will face Germany in the later games at 2:15 p.m. The semi-finals will be determined based on preliminary seeding with the highest remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed.