Sasson Scores First Of The Tournament, Karlsson Nabs Two Assists: Canucks At The 2026 World Championship

After a day off for all four members of the Vancouver Canucks, three players skated in Day 6 of the 2026 IIHF World Championship. All three Canucks won their games today, as Filip Hronek and Czechia won against Italy, Max Sasson and Team USA took down Germany, and Linus Karlsson and Sweden bested Slovenia. Here is a recap of the Canucks’ performances at the 2026 IIHF World Championship on May 20. 

Czechia registered their third regulation win of the tournament today, scoring three consecutive goals within the third period of their matchup against Italy to take the win. Marek Alscher opened the scoring for Czechia at the 45-minute mark, while Jakub Flek gave his team the lead with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game. Dominik Kubalik put one into the empty-net to secure Czechia the win. The win has now put Czechia atop Group A’s standings, surpassing Canada. 

With Czechia rotating their defensive pairings once again, Hronek once again found himself skating with a different defenceman in Tomáš Galvas during parts of today’s game. Just like the previous games, Hronek led his team in minutes played, though today’s count was down by a little bit at only 22:14. The defenceman also assisted on Czechia’s first goal of the game and fired a total of six shots on net. 

Despite both teams trading leads throughout the game, Team USA came out with the win against Germany today. Former Canucks Marc Michaelis and Lukas Reichel factored into Germany’s score, with Reichel assisting on the tying 2–2 goal scored by Frederik Tiffels and Michaelis potting one of his own to give his team the 3–2 lead. Overtime yielded no result between the two, with Matt Coronato and Ryan Leonard scoring in the shootout to ultimately give the U.S. the 4–3 win. 

Throughout the first bit of his 2026 IIHF World Championship, Sasson has consistently taken on the role of the U.S.’s third-line centre between Mathieu Olivier and Paul Cotter. Today, with the addition of Matthew Tkachuk to USA’s roster, Sasson found himself in more of a floater’s role. This didn’t stop him from being a factor in today’s game, however, as he scored to put Team USA up 2–1 at the start of the second period. Sasson’s goal today marks his first-career tally at the World Championships. 

While the beginning of their tournament hadn’t gone as smoothly as they would have wanted, today, Sweden proved themselves as the powerhouse many know them to be by putting up six goals in their win against Slovenia. Lucas Raymond and Jacob de la Rose each scored twice, while Mattias Ekholm and Robert Hägg also found the back of the net. Former Canucks defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson also registered three points in today’s effort. 

Nabbing two assists in today’s game, Karlsson’s point totals throughout the 2026 World Championship now extends to a point per game, as he now has a goal and three assists through four matchups. The Canucks forward helped out on both of de la Rose’s goals today, also registering one shot on goal in the 14:15 minutes he played in during today’s game.  

Group A: 

Switzerland: 4–0–0–0

Finland: 3–0–0–0

Austria: 3–0–0–1

USA: 1–1–0–2

Hungary: 1–0–0–2

Latvia: 1–0–0–2

Germany: 0–0–1–3

Great Britain: 0–0–0–3

Group B: 

Czechia: 3–0–1–0

Canada: 3–0–0–0

Slovakia: 2–1–0–0

Norway: 2–0–0–1

Sweden: 2–0–0–2

Slovenia: 0–1–1–2

Denmark: 0–0–0–3

Italy: 0–0–0–4

Latvia vs. Finland - 7:20 am PT 

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