IIHF World Championship roundup: Finland back on track, Switzerland score seven
The tournament sees 16 of the best hockey-playing nations battling it out on the ice for the chance to claim the top international prize of the year.
The competition begins with a group stage wherein two groups of eight nations play a single round-robin. The top four teams from each group then progress to the quarter-finals.
See the day's results below.
Group A
Germany 3 Finland 4
Hosts and reigning Champions Finland were stunned by the USA in their tournament opener on Friday but they got back to winning ways in a thriller against Germany.
The sides traded goals in the first period through first Joel Armia (Finland) and then Marcel Noebels (Germany) and then scored two more each in the second period.
Kai Wissmann gave Germany a 2-1 lead before a Sakari Manninen double put Finland back in command. John-Jason Peterka made it 3-3 going into the final period.
Mikko Lehtonen spared the home team's blushes, scoring the winner for Finland late on.
Hungary 1 Denmark 3
In Saturday's second Group A encounter, Denmark got their tournament off to a winning start by beating Hungary 3-1.
The Danes had Nikolaj Ehlers to thank for scoring in the first and second periods to go 2-0 up. Istvan Sofron pulled one back for Hungary in the third but it was too little, too late.
Morten Poulsen made it three for Denmark late on to seal the victory.
France 2 Austria 1 (OT)
Neither France nor Austria are expected to trouble the heavyweights at this tournament but they will both be intent on proving they aren't there just to make up the numbers, either.
Given their respective world rankings outside the top 10, these sides will be looking to sneak into the fourth spot in Group A and any points available will be vital to that end.
Tim Bozon's first-period goal had France in the lead in the early match in Tampere until Austria equalised in the third through Thomas Raffl to send the match to overtime.
Florian Chakiachvili snatched the winner for France less than a minute into OT.
Group B
Slovakia 2 Latvia 1
Both co-hosts Latvia and Slovakia suffered losses on day one of the tournament and there is no better tonic for that sort of disappointment than a win the very next day.
Unfortunately for the home fans in Riga, it was the Slovaks who edge what was a close contest.
Slovakia's Matus Sukel scored the first period's only goal before Rodrigo Abols levelled things for Latvia in the second.
Marek Hrivik scored what would prove to be the winner halfway through the final period.
See the full match stats here.
Norway 3 Kazakhstan 4 (SO)
Earlier, Kazakhstan roared back from a 3-1 deficit to level things in the third period against Norway in the sides' opening match in Riga, sending the game to overtime. Penalties were needed to decide it, with Kazakhstan winning the shootout 2-1.
By midway through the second period, Norway had a 3-1 lead thanks to two goals from Michael Haga and another from Ole Holm.
Kazakhstan's Valeri Orekhov added to Maxim Mukhametov's earlier goal to make it 3-2 by the second break before Nikita Mikhailis sensationally levelled the scores in the third period.
Overtime ended with the teams still locked at 3-3 and penalties ensued with Kazakhstan completing the brilliant comeback to claim the win.
Switzerland 7 Slovenia 0
Switzerland have been building a strong side over the last few years packed full of talent from the NHL and they come into this World Championships as an outside bet to cause some trouble in the latter stages.
They only added to those expectations by making light work of Slovenia in their opening Group B match early in the day in Riga.
It was one-way traffic throughout the match with Denis Malgin and Janis Jerome Moser putting the Swiss 2-0 in the first period before Nino Niederreiter added a third in the second.
In the final period, Malgin, Calvin Thurkauf, Marco Miranda and Christoph Bertschy all scored, heaping more misery on the Slovenes.
Follow all the action from the World Championships on Flashscore.
