Hungary have been out in the cold for 70 years. When they finally returned, they were only 13 seconds from creating an upset. The host, Switzerland, suffered from premiere jitters but managed to beat France narrowly. The title contenders, Russia and Canada cruised to easy victories on the first day of the 2009 IIHF World Championship.

GROUP A

Belarus - Canada 1-6 (0-2, 0-0, 1-4)
24 April 2009, Arena Zürich-Kloten, Att: 5,232
Refs:Sami Partanen & Jyri Petteri Rönn (FIN)
Linesmen: Antti Orelma (FIN) & Peter Sabelström (SWE)
0-1 01:05 Steve Stamkos 1 (St. Louis, Doan)
0-2 14:29 Steve Stamkos 2 (Doughty) PP1
0-3 44:27 Jason Spezza 1 (Heatley, J. Neal)
0-4 46:01 Mike Fisher 1 (J.Neal, C. Armstrong)
0-5 50:44 Dany Heatley 1 (Spezza)
1-5 52:44 Mikhail Grabovski 1 (Salei)
1-6 54:05 Dany Heatley 2 (Spezza, Roy)
BLR 5x2, CAN 5x2, SOG 24:42 (4:18, 12:11, 8:13)
Best players: BLR: Mikhail Grabovski, CAN: Steve Stamkos

BLR: Vitali Koval; Aleksandr Riadinski, Ruslan Salei; Andrei Mikhailev, Yaroslav Chupris, Dmitri Meleshko (2) Andrei Bashko, Andrei Antonov (2); Aleksei Ugarov, Mikhail Grabovski, Aleksei Kalyuzhny - Ivan Usenko, Viktor Kostiuchenok (2), Evgeni Kovyrshin, Konstantin Koltsov, Sergei Demagin - Oleg Antonenko, Andrei Stas, Aleksandr Kulakov (2).
CAN: Dwayne Roloson; Dan Hamhuis, Shea Weber; Derek Roy, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley - Drew Doughty (2), Chris Phillips, Shane Doan (2), Steve Stamkos, Martin St. Louis - Luke Schenn, Ian White, Matthew Lombardi, Shawn Horcoff (2), Scottie Upshall - James Neal (2), Mike Fisher (2), Colby Armstrong.

Canada quickly found the tune and skated to an easy 6-1 victory. Canada's offense was largely lead by the Ottawa and Tamba duos Spezza-Heatley and Stamkos-St. Louis. With 2 goals and a assist, Heatley picked right up where he left off in the 2008 World Championship. He also extended his lead as the all-time Canadian IHWC scoring leader with 55 points (34+21) in 44 games. Tamba rookie, Steve Stamkos scored two goals in his IHWC debut.
Helped by a series of powerplays, Belarus appeared to get back in the game in the 2. period. Belarus even had a goal annulled when Dwayne Roloson controversially knocked off its moorings a split-second before Mikhail Grabovsky put the puck into the net. In the third period, Canada exploded with four goals as Belarus got tired.

Slovakia - Hungary 4-3 (1-0, 2-1, 1-2)
24 April 2009, Arena Zürich-Kloten, Att: 4,773
Refs: Brent Reiber & Vladimir Sindler (SUI)
Linesmen: Petr Blumel (CZE)/Andrii Kicha (UKR)
1-0 01:46 Stefan Ruzicka 1 (Granak, Vydareny)
1-1 22:01 Roger Holeczy (Benk, Kangyal)
2-1 38:13 Lubos Bartecko 1 (Hossa)
3-1 39:04 Marcel Hossa 1 (Handzus, Bartecko)
3-2 42:52 Imre Peeterdi (Ladanyi)
3-3 54:04 Tamas Sille 1 (Kovacs) PP1
4-3 59:47 Lubos Bartecko 2 (Hossa, Handzus)
SVK 1x2, HUN 3x2, SOG 52:16 (10:4, 18:7, 24:5)
Best Players: SVK: Marcel Hossa, HUN: Roger Holeczy

SVK: Ratislav Stana; Jaroslav Obsut, Andrej Sekera; Lubos Bartecko (2), Michal Handzus, Marcel Hossa - Peter Smrek, Ivan Baranka, Ladislav Nagy, Ratislav Pavlikovsky, Branko Radivojevic; Dominik Granak, Rene Vydareny,  Peter Olvecky, Stefan Ruzicka, Juraj Mikus - Boris Valabik, Jiri Bicek, Milan Bartovic, Thomas Surovy.
HUN: Levente Szuper; Bence Svasznek, Tamas Sille, Csaba Kovacs, Krisztian Palkovics (2), Daniel Fekete -  Andras Horvath, Viktor Tokaji, Balazs Ladanyi, Marton Vas, Imre Peterdi - Viktor Szelig, Omar Ennaffati, Csabi Janosi, Janos Vas, Artyom Vaszjunyin - Ratislav Ondrejcik (4), Balazs Kangyal, Andras Benk, Gergely Majoross, Roger Holeczy.

Hungary has been left out in the cold since the breakout of World War II. After 70 years, Hungary have finally returned to the ballroom and they are determined to stay there. On the opening day of the 2009 IIHF World Championship, they were only 13 seconds from adding another page to the history of the greatest upsets in the IIHF World Championships. In a game that looked to go all the way to a shootout, Lubos Bartecko, however, crushed all Hungarian hopes for a miracle when he lighted the lamp with only 13 seconds remaining of regular time. Roger Holeczy made history becoming the first Hungarian goalscorer upon Hungary's return to the Worlds.

GROUP B

Germany - Russia 0-5 (0-3, 0-0, 0-2)
24 April 2009, Postfinance Arena (Bern), Att: 10,570
Refs: Soeren Persson & Marcus Vinnerborg (SWE)
Linesmen: Peter Feola (USA)/ Christian Kasper (AUT)
0-1 08:14 Oleg Saprykin 1 (Radulov)
0-2 09:37 Ilya Kovalchuk 1 (Volchenkov)
0-3 15:25 Sergei Zinoviev 1 (Tverdovsky)
0-4 42:53 Anton Kuryanov 1 (Zaripov)
0-5 51:52 Danis Zaripov 1 (Morozov, Nikulin) PP1
GER 9x2, RUS 2x2, SOG 20:31 (6:14, 10:7, 4:10)
Best players: GER: Kai Hospelt, RUS: Danis Zaripov

GER: Dmitri Pätzold; Michael Bakos, Michael Wolf (2), Michael Hackert (2),  Philip Gogulla - Sven Butenschön, Christoph Schubert (2); Jochen Hecht,  Yannic Seidenberg, Christoph Ullmann (2) - Sebastian Osterloh, Moritz Müller;  Sven Felski (2), Daniel Kreutzer, Alexander Barta - Andreas Renz (2), Frank Hördler (2), Travis Mulock,Kai Hospelt, Patrick Hager.
RUS: Ilya Bryzgalov; Ilya Nikulin, Vitali Proshkin; Danis Zaripov, Aleksei Tereschenko, Aleksei Morozov - Vitali Vishnevski (2), Oleg Tverdovsky (2), Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Zinoviev, Aleksandr Perezhogin (2) - Dmitri Kalinin, Vitali Atyushov; Oleg Saprykin, Konstantin Gorovikov, Aleksandr Radulov - Anton Volchenkov, Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Kuryanov.

In a game, IIHF's website characterized as Lamborghinis vs Trabis, the title holders of Russia thoroughly outclassed Germany with a 5-0 win. Saprykin, Kovalchuk, Zinoviev, Kuryanov and Zaripov scored for Russia while Bryzgalov got his first IHWC shutout. Russia only dressed 18 players for the game, anticipating further enforcements from the NHL. The Sbornaja is determined to remain golden.

Switzerland - France 1-0 (1-0, 0-0, 0-0)
24 April 2009, Postfinance Arena (Bern), Att: 11,417
Refs: Rick Looker & Thomas Sterns (USA)
Linesmen: Miroslav Valach (SVK) / Chris de Haan (CAN)
1-0 11:33 Martin Plüss 1 (Mark Steit) PP1
SUI 7x2, FRA 9x2, SOG 42:14 (14:6, 10:3, 18:5)
Best players: SUI: Martin Gerber, FRA: Fabrice Lhenry

SUI: Martin Gerber; Severin Blindenbacher, Mark Steit; Ivo Rühtemann, Martin Plüss, Ryan Gardner -  Felicien Du Bois (2), Goran Bezina (2); Thomas Deruns, Sandy Jeannin, Romano Lemm - Phillipe Furrer (2),  Roman Wick (2), Julien Sprunger, Andreas Ambühl, Kevin Romy - Mathias Seger (2), Roman Josi, Thomas Ziegler, Raffaele Sannitz (2), Thierry Paterlini (2).
FRA: Fabrice Lhenry; Vincent Bachet (2), Baptiste Amar (2); Yorick Treille (2), Laurent Meunier (2), Damien Raux -  Mathieu Mille (2), Antonin Manavian, Francois Rozenthal, Laurent Gras, Anthoine Lussier (2) - Benoit Quessandier, Thomas Roussel, Pierre Edouard Bellemare, Kevin Hequefeuille (2), Damien Fleury  - Kevin Igier, Jonathan Zwikel (4), Stephane da Costa, Luc Tardif, Sacha Treille.

Switzerland suffered from a bad combination of host and first game jitters with bouncy passes and too cautious conversions on scoring chances. "We found the players a little bit nervous, going in front of the home crowd and we just couldn't prepare them enough. Now we have to take that experience and use it to work for us," Switzerland's coach Ralph Krueger said. Halfway into the 1st period, Switzerland got the momentum when France took four penalties. France killed the first Swiss powerplay (a 5-on-3), but didn't survived the next as Martin Plüss took a pass from Mark Streit and sent a wrist shot from the point to beat Fabrice Lhenry for the first and only time in the game.