Sweden will try to win a third consecutive gold medal at the 2019 IIHF World Championship, to be held in Slovakia through May 26. No country has won three straight championships since the Czech Republic from 1999-2001.
Seven players are back for Sweden from last year's team, including Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who will be the captain. Also returning are defensemen Mattias Ekholm (Nashville Predators), Erik Gustafsson (Chicago Blackhawks) and Adam Larsson (Edmonton Oilers), and forwards Patric Hornqvist (Pittsburgh Penguins), Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings) and Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks).
Sweden is playing preliminary-round games in Group B at Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, along with Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Latvia, Austria, Italy and Russia.
Group A, which will play at Steel Arena in Kosice, consists of the United States, Canada, Finland, Germany, Denmark, France, Great Britain and Slovakia. The United States defeated Canada 4-1 last year to win the bronze medal.
All U.S. games will be televised live by NHL Network, which will broadcast more than 30 games throughout the tournament.
The 2019 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia is a showcase for NHL players of the present, past and future who are not involved in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 16-nation tournament began May 10 and runs through May 26.
More than 100 NHL players are involved in the tournament this year, with star-studded Sweden looking to win its third straight championship. Jack Hughes, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, is playing for the United States, along with Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres.
Most of the World Championship games will be broadcast by NHL Network, including every U.S. game. The NHL Network schedule is here
The World Championship Buzz is NHL.com's hub for all the results and news from the tournament.
The tournament continued Sunday with four games:
United States 3, Germany 1: The United States clinched a spot in the quarterfinals while eliminating host Slovakia with a victory against Germany in a Group A game. Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings) and Jack Eichel (Buffalo Sabres) scored third-period goals to break a 1-1 tie. James van Riemsdyk (Philadelphia Flyers) also scored, Alec Martinez (Los Angeles Kings) had two assists and Cory Schneider (New Jersey Devils) made 24 saves for the U.S. (4-1-0-1).
"This is where it gets fun," Schneider told the IIHF website. "Every game has been a different challenge and we've learned some lessons along the way, but this is a game we had to have. It's 1-1 late in the third, we didn't buckle under the pressure or panic. We stuck with our game plan and Larkin had a huge goal and our power play has been dynamite all tournament."
The U.S. ends preliminary round play against Canada on Tuesday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN).
"It will be a good game," Schneider said. "We've had some good tests and we're trying to build our game as the tournament goes. We're very familiar with a lot of their players and they play a similar style to us. There will be a lot on the line in terms of the seeding, so it will be an important game for both sides."
Frederik Tiffles opened the scoring at 11:55 of the first period on an assist from Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) but Germany was shut down the rest of the game.
Despite the loss, Germany (4-0-0-2, 12 points) also advanced to the quarterfinals with Finland and Canada, though seeding is to be determined.
"I thought we played pretty well, but we didn't get the push we wanted at the end, but other than that we played a solid game," Draisaitl said. "In the end, they battled harder, competed a little harder.
"You try to give yourself the best situation you can going into the playoffs, but it's not really in our hands. We'll try to finish out the round robin on a high note in two days [against Finland] and see where we're at."
