How Nashville Predators Players Performed in Weekend Games at the IIHF World Championship
The first three days of the IIHF World Championships got kickstarted this weekend in Switzerland.
Among the teams participating, four of the teams include players from the Nashville Predators: Team Canada, Team USA, Team Finland and Team Switzerland.
Here is how each player performed over the weekend:
Friday, May 15
In Team Canada’s first game of group play, Ryan O’Reilly made his mark in a 5-3 win over Sweden. O’Reilly scored a goal on his only shot on net in his 15 minutes and 31 seconds of time on the ice. In the 16 faceoffs he took, O’Reilly won seven of them.
Predators goaltending prospect Jack Ivankovic did not see game action in the win.
Elsewhere among Predators players was Finnish Nashville goalie Justus Annunen. Annunen opened Team Finland’s IIHF run as the starting goalie as he led his team to a 3-1 victory over Germany.
In the game, Annunen stopped 16 of 17 Germany shots for a save percentage of 94.12% to get Finland off to a 1-0 start.
Friday’s game between Team USA and Team Switzerland featured two players from the Nashville Predators.
On the U.S. side of things, defenseman Ryan Ufko saw 15 minutes and 26 seconds of ice time, but finished -2 in the +/- category. Ufko did not score or assist on the lone Team USA goal. The Predators headliner participant, Roman Josi, saw 25 minutes of game action as he helped Switzerland beat Team USA 3-1.
Josi did not score in the game, but his team did outscore the U.S by one goal during the time he was in the game. Josi saw two minutes in the penalty box as well.
Saturday, May 16
Saturday, there were two games that featured players from the Nashville Predators: Switzerland versus Latvia and Canada versus Italy.
Again, Josi got to see plenty of action in Switzerland’s 4-2 win over Latvia. Josi logged 22 minutes and 47 seconds of ice time as he came up with four shots on goal and finished +1 in the +/- category. Though he did not score, Josi’s aggressiveness on offense helped Switzerland get off to a 2-0 start to group play.
In Canada’s 6-0 win over Italy, Ryan O’Reilly only saw 13 minutes and 48 seconds of action, but he took full advantage of it. O’Reilly scored a goal and assisted on another goal for a total of two points in the game. O’Reilly also won 11 of his 14 faceoffs that he took part in as he finished the game +2 in the +/-.
Jack Ivankovic did not see game action in the win.
Sunday, May 17
On the final day of the weekend, the only game that involved Predators players was Team USA’s game against Great Britain.
In the game, Ryan Ufko saw 19 minutes and 38 seconds of ice time. During that time, Ufko registered two shots on goal, but did not score in the game. Ufko did finish the game with a +/- of +1 in the game as Team USA beat Team Great Britain 5-1.
Ufko and the rest of Team USA’s defense did its job well against Great Britain, allowing the British to just get 20 shots on goal compared to 40 from Team USA. Devin Cooley saved 19 of Great Britain’s 20 shots in the game to lead the Americans to their first victory of group play.
Ryker Lee did not see game action for the United States for the second consecutive game.
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Graham Baakko is a lead writer for both Nashville Predators On SI and Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham graduated from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as an intern for GamecockCentral.