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3 things you need to know about Day 2 at the World Hockey Championship

Vasily Fedosenko / REUTERS

The World Hockey Championship kicked into high gear in Minsk on Saturday, with 12 teams seeing action on day two of the tournament.

Here's what you need to know from Saturday's action in Belarus. 

Canada rebounds from embarrassing loss

Fresh off a shootout loss to France in their first game of the tournament Friday, Canada rebounded with a 4-1 win over Slovakia. 

After Miroslav Satan opened the scoring in the second period, Canada responded with four straight goals, two of which were scored by Joel Ward and the other two coming off the sticks of Cody Hodgson and Kevin Bieksa.

Jason Garrison added two assists from the blue line and Ben Scrivens made 22 saves in the much-needed victory, as Canada had never lost the first two games at this tournament since it began sending NHL players in 1977.

USA remains perfect with win over Switzerland

Team USA is off to a 2-0 start after a win over Switzerland. The Americans found themselves down 2-1 after forty minutes, but third period goals from Craig Smith and Tyler Johnson pushed them to victory.

Johnson added an assist to lead the way with two points, while Tim Thomas stopped 27 of 29 shots in net. Reto Berra countered with a strong performance for Switzerland, making 35 saves in the loss.

Youngster Johnny Gaudreau failed to register a point, but impressed with this attempt.

Mixed results for Scandinavians

Finland took home the bronze medal from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but their World Championship campaign got off to a rocky start with a 3-2 loss to Latvia.

Pekka Rinne allowed goals to Kaspars Daugavins, Kristaps Sotnieks and Arturs Kulda in the loss, while Edgars Masalskis stopped 22 Finnish shots to earn the victory.

Sweden, on the other hand, opened their title defense with a 3-0 win over Denmark. The 2013 World Champions benefited from two goals from Mikael Backlund and 21 saves from Anders Nilsson, who weathered an early storm to earn the shutout.

"The Danes came out hard the first 10 minutes, and I got to make a few saves to get into it," said Nilsson. "After that we took over a little bit."

Other results from day two:

Germany 2, Kazakhstan 1 (SO)
Norway 3, Italy 0

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