What: Ice Hockey World Championship, premiere.
Where: BCF Arena, Fribourg.
When: Friday at 4:20 p.m.
TV/Radio: Viaplay, Radio Sporten.
Premier meeting with the World Championship favorite: Canada enter the World Championship as favourites to win gold with a star-studded team; Sidney Crosby accepted the call-up the other day. Sweden lost to Crosby and Canada at last year's home World Championship, but ultimately took the bronze medal. Canada were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Denmark and have not won the World Championship since 2023. At the Olympics, Canada lost the final to the USA in overtime.
World Championship gold heroes in big roles: Viggo Björck and Ivar Stenberg, World Championship gold medalists last winter, take their places on the top line with Detroit's star forward Lucas Raymond. Team captain Sam Hallam has registered two goalkeepers, six defenders and twelve forwards for the World Championship opener. The final World Championship squad, which does not have to be completed until the last day of the tournament, may contain 25 players, including three goalkeepers.
Canada
Goalkeepers: 33 Cam Talbot, 72 Jack Ivankovic, 73 Jet Greaves.
Defencemen: 2 Dylan DeMelo, 5 Denton Mateychuk, 6 Sam Dickinson, 22 Evan Bouchard, 25 Darnell Nurse, 28 Zach Whitecloud, 29 Parker Wotherspoon, 44 Morgan Rielly.
Forwards: 13 Gabriel Vilardi, 16 Connor Brown, 18 Robert Thomas, 19 Dawson Mercer, 24 Dylan Cozens, 55 Mark Scheifele, 58 Emmitt Finnie, 71 Macklin Celebrini, 81 Dylan Holloway, 87 Sidney Crosby, 90 Ryan O'Reilly, 91 John Tavares, 93 Fraser Minten, 94 Porter Martone.
Sweden
Goalkeepers: 45 Magnus Hellberg, 40 Arvid Söderblom.
Defence pairs: 23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson, 34 Albert Johansson - 14 Mattias Ekholm, 4 Jacob Larsson - 94 Joel Persson, 8 Robert Hägg.
Lines: 13 Lucas Raymond, 61 Viggo Björck, 41 Ivar Stenberg - 20 André Petersson, 70 Oskar Sundqvist, 51 Emil Heineman - 74 Rasmus Asplund, 15 Jack Berglund, 33 Jakob Silfverberg - 9 Linus Karlsson, 95 Jacob de la Rose, 10 Simon Holmström.
