Dallas Stars News: Radek Faksa, Czechs Advance In World Championship

While the majority of the hockey world awaits Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, the 2019 IIHF World Championship is quickly approaching a close. And while two Dallas Stars players joined up with their home countries towards the beginning of the tournament, only one Star now remains.

The Dallas Stars sent a relatively small, but talented group to the IIHF World Championship this year. And after 14 days of excitement, the tournament is finally approaching a close as the field of remaining competitors narrows.

Following the untimely conclusion of their run in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 7, the Stars packed up their equipment and headed on their separate ways for the summer. But while many returned home or went on vacation, Radek Faksa and John Klingberg grabbed their equipment and headed for Slovakia.

That’s where the 2019 IIHF World Championship is being held this year. The annual 16-team tournament began on May 10 with a preliminary round that ended on May 21. In the preliminary round, each of the 16 countries (which were broken up into two groups of eight) participated in a pool play setting that pitted them against the other countries in their bracket. Following the conclusion of those games, the top four teams from each group moved on to the quarterfinals.

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Among those that advanced were Klingberg with Sweden and Faksa with the Czech Republic.

Klingberg finished the preliminary round with one goal and three points as well as a +2 rating in four games played. The Swedes finished third in the Group B standings with a record of 5-2-0, trailing only Russia and the Czech Republic, and entered the quarterfinals in search of their third consecutive gold medal.

Meanwhile, Faksa finished the opening round with one goal and four points as well as a +1 rating in four contests. The Czechs put on a commendable show in the opening round, going 6-1-0 to finish second in Group B.

But as the quarterfinals played out yesterday, one Dallas Stars player was ousted from the tournament. After falling behind 1-0 in their matchup against Finland, Klingberg helped Sweden get on the board with a power play goal to tie things up at 1-1. His goal helped spark two more tallies for the Swedes as they took a commanding 3-1 lead early in the second period. By the end of the second, they led 4-3 and seemed to be in a good spot to advance.

But after Finland found a way to even things up in the third period and force overtime, they scored just 1:37 into the extra frame to down Sweden 5-4 and end their bid at another gold. Klingberg wrapped up tournament play with two goals (both on the power play), four points, and a -1 rating in five games played.

In the other half of the bracket, however, Faksa and the Czechs cruised to a 5-1 win over Germany to punch their ticket to the semifinals. Though Faksa didn’t contribute a point in the win, he did manage to tally a +1 rating.

With the win, the Czechs will now move on to face Canada in the semifinals at 12:15 PM on Saturday afternoon. If they can pull off a win, they will earn a trip to the gold medal game against the winner of Russia vs. Finland and guarantee themselves a medal for the first time since 2012. If they lose, they will be pitted against the loser of the other semifinal game in the bronze medal match.

The tournament is winding down, but one Dallas Stars player still has a chance at bringing home some hardware. It will be interesting to see how well the Czechs can perform against some of the top hockey-producing countries in the world.