Flashscore brings you all the day's results from Tampere and Riga.
Group A
Finland 5 France 3
Co-hosts and reigning champions Finland have not had a dream start to this World Championships by any means. They opened their campaign with a loss to the USA, beat Germany but then lost on penalties to rivals Sweden on Monday.
When France opened the scoring in this Group A match in Tampere through Florian Chakiachvili, the Finns must have been fearing more failure. However, they managed to equalise through Harri Pesonen before taking the lead in the second period thanks to Ahti Oksanen.
Justin Addamo levelled things for France before Marko Anttila's goal meant the hosts went into the second break leading again. Teemu Hartikainen added a fourth goal in the final period to relax Finnish nerves.
Charles Bertrand scored a third for France to make things interesting but Sakari Manninen put the result beyond doubt at the death.
See the full match stats here.
USA 4 Austria 1
Aside from Group B's Switzerland, the USA were the only other team to record three regular-time wins from their opening three matches at this World Championships. Austria, meanwhile, had just one point - gained via an overtime loss to France - from their first three outings.
The writing was thus somewhat on the wall when these two met in Tampere during Wednesday's early game and there were few surprised when the USA ran out 4-1 winners.
After a scoreless opening period, Rocco Grimaldi got the US going before Thomas Raffl pulled one back for the underdog Austrians. Later, Carter Mazur made it 2-1 before the second break.
In the third, Lane Hutson and Nick Perbix put the icing on the cake for the USA.
See the full match stats here.
Group B
Canada 5 Kazakhstan 1
Canada had yet to lose coming into this Group B clash with Kazakhstan in Riga. The Kazakhs had one overtime win under their belt but few were expecting them to trouble one of the top teams in the tournament.
True to form, Canada got off to a flying start. Mackenzie Weegar, Joe Veleno and a Lawson Crouse double had the Canadians in a dominant position in the first period. The Kazakhs scored one in the first, through Adil Beketayev, but it was already a long way back going into the first break.
Samuel Blais added a fifth for Canada in the third period to cap off another win. They jumped the Swiss into top spot in the group with the victory, albeit having played an extra game.
See the full match stats here.
Latvia 2 Norway 1
Co-hosts Latvia were boosted by a surprise overtime win against the Czech Republic on Monday after starting the tournament with losses to Canada and Slovakia. Norway, on the other hand, snatched a first regular-time win over Slovenia on Tuesday to bring their own momentum into this Group B match in Riga.
It proved to be a close encounter and after a goalless first period, it exploded into action with the Latvians scoring two quickfire goals to race into a 2-0 lead. Rodrigo Abols and Toms Andersons got on the scoresheet for the home side.
Ludvig Hoff managed to grab a goal for the Norwegians but they couldn't add another and that's how it ended. Latvia edged into the quarter-final places, at least temporarily, with the win.
