The 2024 IIHF Men's World Championship kicked off today with four matchups and five New Jersey Devils players were in action.
The 2024 IIHF Men's World Championship kicked off today with four matchups and five New Jersey Devils players were in action.
Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler and Akira Schmid were victorious with Switzerland over Norway. Simon Nemec and Slovakia came out on the losing end against Germany. Ondrej Palat and Czechia took down Finland in a shootout and Luke Hughes and Team USA couldn't contain Team Sweden.
Hischier was held off of the scoresheet but Siegenthaler picked up a primary assist on Switzerland's second goal. Switzerland took care of a lesser Norway team beating them 5-2 and outshooting them 40-15. Schmid did not dress for Switzerland so 36-year-old Leonardo Genoni made the start and stopped 13 of the 15 shots he faced.
Nemec failed to register a point but was impactful all over the ice. Team Slovakia is going to heavily rely on Nemec to play big minutes and TSN's Dave Reid mentioned that if Slovakia is going to medal, it's going to be because of Nemec and Juraj Slafkovsky.
Ondrej Palat scored for Czechia but his goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference. The home crowd erupted but were sadly told the goal would be called off. After the regulation and overtime solved nothing, the game went to a shootout. Palat had a chance to score but missed. Czechia did come out on top in the shootout with goals in the shootout from Ondrej Kase and Roman Cervenka.
Luke Hughes and Team USA's tournament did not start out the way they had hoped for. Going up against a tough Sweden team, they lost 5-2. Hughes was unable to register a point in the loss but he finished with a shot on goal playing alongside Jake Sanderson.
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