A Look At Flames Players' Performances In The Prelims Of The 2025 World Championships
With the group stage of the 2025 IIHF World Championships coming to a close, we take a look at how the Flames' representatives performed at the summer competition.
First off, Slovakia's Sam Honzek got great experience playing for the senior team in his first outing. Considering the Slovaks are minnows in world hockey, it was expected that Honzek wasn't going to produce many points but the time on ice against the Swedes (13:25) and a stacked Team Canada (11:57) will go a long way in his development.
Czechia's Dan Vladar started off his tournament backing Karel Vajmelka for the openers against Switzerland and Norway. He then started and won games against Denmark, Hungary and Germany, giving up just three goals and recording a shutout against the Germans. His .952 save percentage is fourth-highest for goalies who have played at least three games in the tournament.
Adam Klapka, also representing the Czechs, has had a slow tournament scoring two goals and three points in the game against Kazakhstan, but producing zero points in his other three appearances in the world championships.
The Czechs are slated to face against hockey powerhouse Sweden in the quarterfinals.
Speaking of of the Swedes, Mikael Backlund and Rasmus Andersson represented the hosts. Backlund, who is the oldest player on Flames roster at 36, scored one goal and five points in six games with a rating of +6. His best showing was against Slovakia when he scored what wound up being the game-winning goal and recorded an assist. Andersson has scored two goals and four points in seven games with a rating of +5.
Canadian MacKenzie Weegar recorded one assist in the tournament.
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