After crusing wins over United States (6-1) and Slovakia (7-1) in the exhibition games, Canada struggled in the opening game vs Sweden at Breclav. Canada's coach, Bob Boughner admitted that his team didn't play its best, but said that special teams made the difference. "We were pretty disciplined . . . and any time you can be 20 per cent or higher, I think you're in good shape", Boughner said. Canada converted twice on ten man-advantage chances. The two goaltenders, Calvin Pickard and Johan Gustafsson played a strong game with saves percentages well over .90. In the late game in Group A, Czech Republic blanked Switzerland 2-0. This game also belonged to the two goaltenders, Petr Mrázek and Lukas Meili.

In Group B, Kirill Kabanov made a hattrick when Russia beat USA 4-3 after trailing 1-3. In the other game of Group B, Finland took an early 2-0 lead over Slovakia, but then the home team got hold of its play in both ends and skated to a surprisingly big 7-2 victory.

With the results of the first day of the Ivan Hlinka Memorial, Canada and Russia looks more or less set to reach the final on Saturday.

Group A at Breclav

Canada - Sweden 3-2 (0-1, 2-0, 1-1)
0-1 (06:04) Gabriel Landeskog (A. Larsson). 1-1 (25:20) Brandon Gormley (McFarland, Toffoli), 2-1 (32:31) Tyler Toffoli (Gormley, Seguin) PP1, 2-2 (40:57) Victor Berglind (A. Larsson) PP1, 3-2 (49:09) Tyler Seguin (Toffoli, McFarland) PP1
CAN 5x2, SWE 10x2 + 1x10 (Landeskog), SOG 39:36

Czech Republic - Switzerland 2-0 (0-0, 0-0, 2-0)
1-0 (41:15) Tomas Filippi (Valenta) PP1, 2-0 (57:07) Denis Kindl (Culek)
CZE 3x2, SUI 4x2, SOG 32:27

CZE: Mrázek - Musil, Hrbas, Zámorský, Jank, Krejčí - Kindl, Valenta, Pavlík - Straka, Kindl, Culek - Pacanda, Herman, Sekáč - Vlach, Filippi, Stach - Koudela
SUI: Meili - Eigenmann, Trutmann, Orellana, Sutter, Hebeisen, Kukan, Marti, Thaler - Niederreiter, Vermin, Martschini - Bärtschi, Haas, Lammer - Arnold, Walser, Schmutz - Leuenberger, Rexha, Theodoridis

Group B at Piestany

USA - Russia 3-4 (2-1, 1-3, 0-0)
1-0 (10:19) Michael Parks (Warning, Isackson), 1-1 (12:45) Kirill Kabanov (Kulikov, Yakupov) PP1, 2-1 (15:00) Sam Warning (Isackson), 3-1 (24:17) Colton St. Clair (Ferlin, Gravel) SH1, 3-2 (27:28) Nail Yakupov (Amirov), 3-3 (30:14) Kirill Kabanov (Galiev, Telegin) PP1, 3-4 (36:45) Kirill Kabanov (Namestnikov, Telegin)
USA 9x2, RUS 5x2, SOG 33:34, Att: 142

Slovakia - Finland 7-2 (3-2, 3-0, 1-0)
0-1 (00:52) Teemu Rautiainen (Arousva, Partanen), 0-2 (03:40) Petteri Halinen (Tlitinen, Åsten), 1-2 (12:33) Lukáš Cingel, 2-2 (17:49) Dominik Šimčák (Bene), 3-2  Viliam Daráš (Wesselényi, Murček), 4-2 (25:02) Lukáš Cingel (Kalináč, Trška), 5-2 (28:54) Tomáš Jurčo (Marinčin), 6-2 (38:41) Matej Bene (Jurčo, Jánošík) PP1, 7-2 (55:03) Tomáš Matoušek (Kalináč, Cingel) PP1
SVK 8x2, FIN 11x2, SOG 40:32, Att: 608