Calgary Flames at World Championship: All four make quarter-finals
By Ramina Shlah
It was the final day of the preliminary round at the World Championship and all four members of the Calgary Flames are advancing to the quarter-finals.
After twelve days of the preliminary round at the World Championship, all four Calgary Flames members at the tournament will be advancing to the quarter-finals. Mikael Backlund captaining Team Sweden, Bill Peters coaching Team Canada, Johnny Gaudreau for Team USA, and David Rittich between the pipes for Team Czech Republic.
Sweden finished in first place in Group A with 20 points in seven games. They’ll be playing Team Latvia in the quarter-finals who finished in fourth place in Group B. Team USA finished in second place in Group B with 16 points and they’ll be playing Team Czech who finished in third place in Group A with 15 points. Canada finished in third in Group B with 15 points and they’ll be playing Russia who finished in second in Group A with 16 points.
Finally, we’ll also see Finland and Switzerland face off against each other, but no Flames are on those teams.
With USA and Czech playing against each other, a maximum of three Flames members will advance to the semi-finals. And at least one will.
In the preliminary round, Gaudreau finished with one goal and eight points in seven games. Rittich was supposed to mainly serve as Pavel Francouz’ backup, but he still played in three games. He finished with an SV% of 0.90 and finished with two wins and one shutout. And finally, Backlund finished with two goals and six points, 54.55 FO win%, and won the player of the game in Sweden’s 5-3 win over Switzerland.
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While I’m Canadian, it’s hard not to root for the others at the tournament. I’ll probably be happy with whoever wins regardless. Except USA. As fun as it is to watch Johnny Gaudreau, I just can’t watch them win.