Today marks the end of round-robin play at the IIHF World Championship. Ilya Kovalchuk had an assist yesterday to help Russia beat Finland 5-4 and finish the opening round in first place in their group, thanks to a 3-0-0 record. Thrashers defensive prospect Ilya Nikulin who is also on the Russian squad has two goals through the opening round.

Today's big matchup sees Marian Hossa and Slovakia take on Canada in a battle of undefeated teams. Slovakia has a whole lot more firepower than Canada now that they have Hossa, Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra in the lineup and I won't be surprised if they pull out a win.  As they are prone to doing, the Canadian squad has struggled in the opening round and has had trouble putting away weaker opponents.

Prospect Tobias Enstrom will hit the ice in today's other game as his Swedish countrymen take on Switzerland.