Multiple Coyotes advance past first round of IIHF World Championship

The IIHF World Championship preliminary round wrapped up on Tuesday as teams get a day off and look toward the quarterfinals.

For teams that move on, there are some Arizona Coyotes who helped them get there.

Canada, Switzerland, Russia, US, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Germany all advanced to the IIHF quarterfinals, which take place on Thursday. Of those teams, there are three members of the Coyotes remaining, while the rest who had participated in this year’s international tournament were eliminated.

Here’s a look at what the Coyotes have been up to so far at the World Championship, which will end with the gold medal game on Sunday.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson

.@OEL23 comes up with a clutch #gOEL. What else is new? 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/NxE5iZJOr9

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) May 18, 2019

Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s native Sweden went 5-2 in the preliminary round of the tournament, with its only losses coming against the Czech Republic and a stacked Team Russia. It won 8-0 over Italy before beating Norway 9-1 and Austria 9-1, but it’s no surprise given that Sweden is the defending champion of the tournament and features elite players like Henrik Lundqvist, Elias Pettersson and Gabriel Landeskog. 

Ekman-Larsson, serving as Sweden’s captain this year, averaged more than 22 minutes per game and tallied three goals with three assists on 25 shots on goal and a plus-7 rating for the tournament in seven games so far.

#SWEAUT #IIHFWorlds Oh Captain, my captain!@OEL23 makes it took easy as he scores @Trekronorse 's 8th of the game! @ArizonaCoyotes

Stay up to the minute with game action with the IIHF App:
 https://t.co/PDQtNtuJxc
▶️ https://t.co/yImldTg3TU pic.twitter.com/fRQ3J59zOX

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 16, 2019

Sweden will play Finland on Thursday.

Mario Kempe

Mario Kempe also played for Sweden, scoring a goal and an assist in four games played with 11 shots on goal and a plus-1 rating.

Liam Kirk

Great Britain isn’t known as a hockey powerhouse, but the native country of the Coyotes’ seventh-round draft pick from last year became the darling of the tournament in its final game of preliminary play. Great Britain won 4-3 in overtime, marking their only win of the tournament to go 1-6, and stave off relegation out of the event next year.

It was Britain’s first win at a top-level IIHF Worlds or Olympic event in 57 years.

.@TeamGBicehockey HAS DONE IT! They remain in the top tier of #IIHFWorlds #FRAGBR pic.twitter.com/8UC87VHv32

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 20, 2019

Meanwhile, Liam Kirk played six games and had three shots on goal and 14:36 of ice time in the win over France, which were both highs for him in the tournament. He did not register a point.

Clayton Keller

Team USA went 5-2 with losses to Slovakia and Canada, which were their first and last games of the tournament, respectively.

Clayton Keller was part of a stacked USA team that featured players like Patrick Kane, Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau and likely No. 1 overall pick Jack Hughes.

Keller scored two goals with two assists and had 18 shots on goal over seven games. The Coyotes’ goal song even played when Keller scored against Great Britain:

The goal.
The goal song.

This was beautiful, @ClaytonKeller37. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/FkExDdheVQ

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) May 15, 2019

USA will play Russia in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Richard Panik

Richard Panik scored one goal and had six assists in six games with a plus-3 rating for Slovakia, which went 4-3 in the preliminary round. But it was this move by Panik that nearly broke the internet:

Panik just took a shot with the BACKHAND TOE and snipped five hole….. Put it on repeat have a good night #RareDanglesPB Alert! pic.twitter.com/QfKLOKUm0G

— Pavel Barber (@HeyBarber) May 7, 2019

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