How Nashville Predators Players Performed to Close Out First Week of IIHF World Championship
Nashville Predators players returned to action Wednesday and Thursday on the sixth and seventh days of the IIHF World Championship games to close out the first week of the event.
After all six Nashville players had an off day Tuesday with their respective countries, they got back on the ice the past two days. Wednesday’s games featured Roman Josi and Team Switzerland playing against Team Austria and Team USA’s Ryan Ufko taking on Team Germany.
Thursday’s games had Nashville goaltender Justus Annunen against Team Latvia and Predators and Team Canada winger Ryan O’Reilly playing Team Norway.
Here is how Nashville players performed each day.
Wednesday, May 20
The first game of the day that featured a Predators player was Josi and Switzerland against Team Austria. Switzerland cruised to an easy 9-0 win over the Austrians to stay undefeated at the IIHF games.
Despite the scoring avalanche from Switzerland, Josi did not score any of the goals. Josi played 21 minutes and 40 seconds and did not even get a shot on goal. Josi did, however, finish the game with a +/- of +2 in the game.
With the win, host team Switzerland improved to 4-0-0 with 12 points in the Group A standings.
In Team USA’s game Wednesday, the Americans took down Germany 4-3 in a shootout to get to five points in the standings.
Predators defenseman Ryan Ufko was active in the game for Team USA as he was on the ice for 19 minutes and 38 seconds. Ufko assisted on one of the three USA goals in regulation for his lone point of the game. Ufko also recorded two shots on net in the game and finished with a +/- of +1.
Predators prospect Ryker Lee did not see game action for the fourth consecutive game.
Thursday, May 21
Thursday’s game started off with Annunen and Team Finland crushing Team Latvia 7-1. In the game, Annunen was the star defensively for Team Finland as he put on another show in net with 14 saves on the 15 shots on goal that he faced. His save percentage in the game was 93.3%.
Annunen’s performance in the IIHF World Championship games thus far has tied Finland with Switzerland with an undefeated record in the Group A standings.
In the second game of the day that featured a Predators player, Ryan O’Reilly and Team Canada beat Team Norway 6-5 in overtime.
O’Reilly was involved throughout the game as he scored one of the six Canadian goals during his 15 minutes and 14 seconds on the ice. Additionally, O’Reilly won 10 of the 16 faceoffs he took part in as he had two shots on goal during the game. With the win, Team Canada moved back into a tie for first with Slovakia in the Group B standings.
Tomorrow, Canada looks for another win as it takes on Team Slovenia and Team Finland looks to remain undefeated as it plays against Team Great Britain.
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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.