2025 IIHF World Championship: Fleury, Saros highlight top standouts from Day 11
The penultimate day of round-robin action at the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship is complete, with Czechia, Slovenia, Finland and Norway securing victories.
Sweden, Canada and Finland hold the three confirmed playoff spots in Group A, while Czechia, Switzerland and Germany will move on from Group B. All six teams will be in action on Tuesday.
Czechia has yet to lose a game through six outings, with their 5-0 win over Germany being one of their most complete performances to date. The win put them in top spot in Group B heading into the final day of play.
Germany will now look to advance to the playoffs with a winner-takes-all deciding game against Denmark at 2:20 PM ET on Tuesday.
Slovenia, meanwhile, snagged their first win of the tournament to remain in the top event in consecutive years for the first time since 2005 and 2006. France’s 3-1 loss pushed them to Division IA for the first time since 2007.
Norway managed to avoid relegation after beating Hungary 1-0. Hungary and Kazakhstan are tied for seventh in Group B, but the Hungarians have the advantage over Kazakhstan due to winning the matchup between them earlier in the tournament. That means Kazakhstan will need a point against Switzerland on Tuesday to avoid relegation.
Canada and Finland capped off the day in Sweden, with the game requiring extra time to decide the winner. In the end, Eeli Tolvanen scored the shootout winner to close the game and secure at least third in Group A.
In another consequential game tomorrow, Austria and Latvia will play for the final spot in Group A as well. Latvia has a two-point advantage, so the Austrians would need to win the game in regulation to advance.
Here’s a look at the top performers from Monday’s four-game slate:
Czechia 5, Germany 0
Czechia
#98 Martin Necas, RW (Colorado Avalanche): Necas had two assists today, with the first coming off a fantastic pass on the power play. Necas hasn’t been as effective as David Pastrnak, but he has quietly done a lot of great things for this team. His size and speed has been a matchup nightmare for teams all tournament long and I’ve really liked watching him find opportunities in open space.
#88 David Pastrnak, RW (Boston Bruins): Breaking news: Pasta is damn good. He had a goal and an assist in the first 26 minutes to put the game out of reach. From there, he kept having good opportunities and driving the play on a high-end Czech top line. This is some of the best international hockey that we’ve seen from Pastrnak over his career. That should bode well for the Olympics – which could very well be the next time we see No. 88 playing for a competitive team. Sorry, Bruins fans.
#80 Daniel Vladar, G (Calgary Flames): Vladar stopped all 19 shots sent his way. It wasn’t a massive workload, but he still had to do what he had to do to keep the Czechs in good standing. Vladar takes up a lot of net at 6-foot-6 and it seemed like the Germans simply couldn’t figure him out. He has only played three games at this tourney but has looked good in all of them.
#19 Jakub Flek, RW: Don’t leave Flek alone in open spaces. He can abuse any opening in the offensive zone, and he scored two goals today to prove that. Flek has points in all but one World Championship game this year, including four over the past two. He might only be a fourth-liner, but he continues to make the most of his opportunities.
Germany
#18 Tim Stutzle, LW (Ottawa Senators): Overall, it has been a quiet tournament for Stutzle. But he was named best player today after an overall decent effort where he had to do a bit of everything at both ends. He only had one shot, but he had a good showing defensively and made some solid plays on the rush.
France 1, Slovenia 3
France
#32 Quentin Papillon, G: There’s only so much you can do when the team in front of you can’t produce. Papillon battled hard and neither goal against in the first period was his fault. From there on out, Papillon was lights out, stopping everything else sent his way before he was pulled in favor of an empty net to close out the game. Antoine Keller had been the better French goalie in this tournament, but Papillon saved his best performance for last.
Slovenia
#70 Rok Kapel, LW: Kapel made some magic happen today. He made two great passes in the first half to snag primary assists, and Rok has never been that productive – he hadn’t registered a point at this tournament yet, and had just 14 points in the ICEHL this season. But the speedy 5-foot-9 winger has gotten better as the tournament wore on and saw the ice as well as we’ve seen him in the tournament.
#61 Lukas Horak, G: Horak has been downright fantastic the past few games, and he was the catalyst in keeping Slovenia in the top division. The Czech-born goaltender wasn’t super busy, but it seemed like the onslaught from Sweden really allowed him to dial in and play even better against competition more suited for Slovenia. He has quick footwork and his athleticism is great, too. Some goalies on smaller teams struggle with endurance but that doesn’t bother Horak.
Canada 1, Finland 2 (OT)
Canada
#29 Marc-Andre Fleury, G: If this was the last time we see Fleury in a top-level hockey game, he put up one heck of an effort. He wasn’t as busy as Juuse Saros but he was just as good. The future Hockey Hall of Famer didn’t look like he was in his 40s. Instead, he reacted to shots as well as anyone we’ve seen at this tournament and made numerous high-level saves.
#14 Bo Horvat, LW (New York Islanders): Horvat was very noticeable today, especially on the man advantage. He had five shots in the first 40 minutes alone, good to lead everyone. He seemed to be getting tons of quality looks but Saros kept shutting him down. Still, it’s been a treat watching Horvat the past few weeks. He seems to be loving the opportunity playing beside Nathan MacKinnon and serving as the top-line trigger man.
Finland
#74 Juuse Saros, G (Nashville Predators): Saros has really turned his year around over the past two weeks. It was a difficult season for the veteran goaltender, and his showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off wasn’t all too inspiring. But he has given Finland a chance to win every single night, and it could have easily gone south early in this game had it not been for his superb night.
#23 Nikolas Matinpalo, D (Ottawa Senators): Between blocked shots late in the game and the assist on the 1-1 goal, Matinpalo had a noticeable game today. The second-pairing defender liked waiting until Fleury had no eyesight to get shots towards the net and that’s exactly what led to the tying goal. That was my favorite game of Matinpalo’s this month.
Hungary 0, Norway 1
Hungary
#1 Bence Balizs, G: Like always, you can’t win if your team doesn’t score. Balizs wasn’t too busy but he was perfect beyond the breakaway goal that made it 1-0. His team didn’t make it easy in front of him, but he did a good job of reacting to redirections and one-timers.
Norway
#12 Noah Steen, LW (Tampa Bay Lightning): Steen scored the ice-breaker off a great rush in front. Steen does a good job of pushing the limit to get to the middle of the ice and has the footwork to make plays happen. He has seen his ice time improve as the tournament has worn on because he continues to
#28 Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, C (Detroit Red Wings): Yet another huge game for MBN. He didn’t play a ton but he had another good two-way effort. He set up Steen’s 1-0 goal and then nearly had goals of his own in the second period and early in the third. Brandsegg-Nygard leaves everything on the ice and never backs down from a physical challenge, either.
#78 Emil Lilleberg, D (Tampa Bay Lightning): Lilleberg played 10:32 in the first and 11:34 in the second. Those are insane numbers in a game where they needed their biggest stars to show up, and the lone NHLer on the team delivered. He was a brick wall defensively and also had a good showing with the puck, as well. This is a guy who has gotten better and better as the tournament progressed.
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