Three members of the Winnipeg Jets are participating in the 2023 IIHF World Hockey Championship, which is being hosted in Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia.
Saturday marked the second day of competition, with two Jets opening up their preliminary rounds - Nikolaj Ehlers (Denmark) and Nino Niederreiter (Switzerland).
SWITZERLAND 7, SLOVENIA 0
A total of 13 Swiss skaters registered at least a point in their bit tournament opening win.
Nino Niederreiter was one of those, as he scored Switzerland's third goal of the contest with 7:13 remaining in the second.
With his team on a power play, Niederreiter went to the front of the net and got his stick on a Denis Malgin shot. The puck trickled past Slovenia goaltender Gasper Kroselj.
Niederreiter, Switzerland's captain for the event, finished the game with 19:18 of ice time. This is the first time he's represented his country since the 2019 IIHF World Hockey Championship.
This is his sixth time at the Worlds, with the highlight so far being a silver medal in 2018, when he had four goals and nine points in 10 games.
Next up for Switzerland is a match-up with Norway (0-0-1-0) on Sunday.
Earlier this season, Nikolaj Ehlers became the highest scoring Dane in National Hockey League history, and his presence on the Danish national team is always a boost.
Saturday was no different.
Ehlers scored twice, including the eventual game-winner, in a 3-1 win for Denmark.
Both tallies came on the power play. His first, a one-timer from the bottom off the left circle with 4:05 remaining in the first.
He followed that up with a play that Jets fans have grown familiar with in the second. With 9:23 off the clock in the middle frame, Ehlers took a pass from Markus Lauridsen high in the offensive zone and, skating down the strong side, ripped a wrist shot past goaltender Bence Balizs to make it 2-0.
