Laughton, Canada Suffer First Loss In World Championships

Hockey power Canada finally tasted defeat in the World Championships on Saturday.

The Canadians fell to undefeated Switzerland, 3-2, at Riga, Latvia. It was the Swiss’ fourth win in the last five World Championship meetings against Canada.

Flyers forward Scott Laughton had the primary assist on Canada’s first goal by Calgary’s Tyler Toffoli. But the Swiss tied the score on a goal from New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier.

“They’ve had a good tournament so far,” Laughton said about the Swiss. “They added some big boys and good players.

“I thought we were prepared. They came out hard in the first, kept us on our heels, but then we found our game and got more chances. We’ll try to build off that and look forward.”

The Swiss scored the next two goals. Canada got close with a goal from Michael Carcone with 3:38 to play.

Laughton had 27 shifts for 19:31 of ice time.

Looking Ahead

Canada is in third place in Group B with three wins, one overtime win and one loss. Canada plays Norway at 9:20 a.m. (Philadelphia time) Monday on NHL Network.

Team USA defeated Denmark, 3-0, on Saturday behind the winning goal by Cutter Gauthier. The Americans are in first place in Group A at 5-0 and play France at 1:20 p.m. Sunday on NHL Network.

“We started getting better as the game went on, started to play more aggressively, less sitting back,” Laughton said.

“Obviously, not the result we want but we’re still in a decent spot. We have to find our way the next two games and then figure things out.”

Hischier, who was drafted No. 1 by the Devils in 2017, one slot ahead of the Flyers picking Nolan Patrick, scored his first goal of the tournament in his second game.

“I think we just play our game,” Hischier said. “I think it’s not easy to play against us. Today again was a good game overall and we were able to score one more goal than them.”

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Around The National Hockey Network:

Florida Hockey Now: Matthew Tkachuk scores another overtime goal as Panthers take 2-0 series lead over Hurricanes.

Vegas Hockey Now: Lessons to be learned for Golden Knights after their Game 1 victory.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Penguins reportedly expected to seek permission to interview fired Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas.

Detroit Hockey Now: Red Wings’ Jonatan Berggren was nearly hit by a train at the World Championships while training with Sweden before the event.

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Today’s Playoff Game:

Game 2: Dallas at Vegas, 3 p.m., on ABC.