From Matthew Tkachuk’s debut to Sasha Barkov’s playmaking, Florida’s stars are showing up on the international stage.
The handful of Florida Panthers participating at the 2026 IIHF World Championship are making their mark.
On Wednesday, Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk made his tournament debut during a 4-3 shootout win by the United States over Germany, and young Florida defenseman Marek Alscher scored the game-tying goal for Czechia in their eventual 3-1 victory over Italy.
The U.S. sits in fourth place in Group A with five points through four games while Czechia is one point behind Canada for first place in Group B with 10 points in their four outings.
Then on Thursday, three more Cats players hit for their respective nations when Team Finland faced off against Latvia in a matchup of teams in Group A.
The Latvians jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on a goal 10 seconds into the game that saw young Panthers forward Sandis Vilmanis log the primary assist on.
It was Vilmanis’ third assist through four World Championship outings.
Unfortunately for Latvia, that would be the extent of their highlights for the day as they were dropped by the Finns 7-1.
Panthers teammates Sasha Barkov and Anton Lundell teamed up on Finland’s fifth goal of the night.
For Lundell, the tally was his third goal and fourth point through four games at the World Championship while Barkov picked up his fourth assist in as many outings.
The win improved Finland’s record to a perfect 4-0 at the tournament. They are in second place in the Group A though, as host Switzerland has also won all four of their games so far, but hold a better goal differential (+18) than the Finns (+15).
As for Latvia, they sit in sixth place in Group A, two spots behind the Americans with three points through four games.
They’ll be back in action on Saturday when they face the United States at 6:20 a.m. ET.
Finland’s next game is Friday against Great Britain at 2:20 p.m. ET while Czechia will battle Slovakia on Saturday at 10:20 a.m. ET.
All teams will play seven games in the preliminary round before the tournament moves into the quarterfinals, which all take place on Friday, May 28.
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Photo caption: Feb 13, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team Finland forward Anton Lundell (15) skates against Team USA in the second period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. (David Kirouac-Imagn Images)