The first day of the 2015 IIHF World Championship is in the books and several CHL players past and present were in action. Linkoping's Mathias Sjogren and reigning CHL scoring champion Mathis Olimb each contributed two points to their respective national teams.

by Derek O'Brien, with contributions from Staff Writers

PRAGUE and OSTRAVA – Eight of the 16 teams that are competing in this year's World Championship played their first games on Friday. Three of the games were rather decisive victories, while a fourth was an absolutely wild affair that was decided in a shootout.

Action in Prague started with Canada's big offensive stars dismantling Latvia 6–1. For forward Koba Jass, this is a special tournament because it's in the Czech Republic, the country he's played for the past three seasons, including the last two for Bili Tygri Liberec. He's played many games in O2 Arena before, but this was by far the loudest he's ever seen it.

“They are our sixth player and we're very thankful for them, they help us a lot,” he said about the Latvian fans in attendance. The O2 Arena fans even gave Jass a warm ovation when it was announced that he was celebrating his 25th birthday this week, and he waved from the bench when in response. Afterward, however, he said, “It's not about my birthday. 

“We knew going in this would be a very hard game and Canada is a very good team. We have to analyze what went wrong today and not make the same mistakes tomorrow. We have to be smarter and concentrate better.”

That next game is Saturday night against the host Czechs, where the building will be even louder than their game against Canada, but it's hard to believe it could be louder than for Friday night's opener against Sweden. 

“In front of our home crowd we want to go all out, the mood is excellent,” Czech defenceman and Pardubice captain Petr Caslava said before the game. “(Pre-tournament games in) Znojmo and Brno were sold out, so I can feel how the whole country is ready for this World Championship.”

The crowd was into it but it was the Swedes that got the fast start. Joel Lundqvist of Frolunda Gothenburg opened the scoring and the Swedes built up a 4–2 lead, but the Czechs came back with three straight goals in the third period before Mattias Sjogren of Linkoping HC tied it on the power play in the last minute. The Swedes eventually won in overtime. 

On the other side of the Czech Republic in Ostrava, the USA opened with a 5–1 victory over Finland. The lone Finnish goal was scored by Jyrki Jokipakka, assisted by Skelleftea AIK's Janne Pesonen and Karpat Oulu's Joonas Kemppainen.

In the later game, Russia scored four times in the first period to jump out to a huge lead over Norway, but the Norwegians battled back with a couple of goals in the second – the final score was 6–2. Mathis Olimb, who played this past season for Frolunda Gothenburg, assisted on both Norwegian goals. He has now signed with Jokerit Helsinki so he won't play in the CHL this season but his brother, Norwegian national teammate Ken Andre Olimb of Dusseldorfer EG, will.

“We found a way to score two goals in the second period, created some chances, so hopefully we can start better tomorrow,” this past season's CHL MVP and scoring champion said.

Norway's game on Day 2 is against the USA. As well all teams who didn't play on Friday will get going on Saturday, with a whole lot more CHL players hitting the ice in Prague and Ostrava.