Three Montreal Canadiens representatives were in action on Saturday at the 2024 IIHF World Championships.
First, Canada grabbed three points in the standings in a back-and-forth 5-3 win against Finland. The score was 3-3 early in the third period when the Tampa Bay Lightning's Brandon Hagel netted the eventual game winning goal.
Kaiden Guhle was held off the scoresheet in 18:51 of ice time and took one shot on goal.
On the other end, it was Oliver Kapanen's most difficult outing since the beginning of the competition. He saw the ice for 13:16, took two shots on the goal and finished at minus-2. The center struggled at the faceoff circle, winning 36.4 percent of the draws against the Canadians.
The Canadiens second round pick, 64th overall in 2021 remains on top of the goals category with six in five games at the World Championships.
At Ostrava arena, Juraj Slafkovsky obtained an assist in Slovakia's 4-2 against France. The first overall pick of the 2022 draft took two shots in 18:03 of action. Since the start of the competition, the 20-year old totals five assists in five contests.
All four of the matches on the schedule for Sunday will feature a Canadiens representative. At 10:20 am Eastern time, Austria with Vinzenz Rohrer face Norway in Prague, while Cole Caufield and the United States take on Kazakhstan in Ostrava.
At 2:20 pm Eastern, Canada with Guhle square off against Switzerland in Prague, while Slovakia with Slafkovsky battle Latvia.
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