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How's it going on the other side of the pond, for Lightning players and in the tournament as a whole?

Update on the World Championship tourney after one week of play.

Five Lightning players are participating this year. Here's what you need to know.

If you tried to predict the outcome of the 2012 IIHF World Championships, and I'm sure you did, chances are you were wrong. That's okay. Pretty much everyone was.

The IIHF World Championships quarterfinals provides everything a hockey fan could wish for: 4 consecutive highly competitive and emotionally destabilizing hockey games. Here's a recap of the 2012 edition that sent Slovakia, Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic on to the medal round.

It's quarterfinals day at the IIHF World Championships, featuring four games between the world's top eight hockey nations. Canada takes on Slovakia, Russia plays Norway, Finland faces the USA while Sweden and the Czechs face off in a rematch of last year's semifinal.

The preliminary round of the IIHF World Championships comes to a close on Tuesday with a few things still to be decided. Can France do the unthinkable, and will Slovakia, Germany or Switzerland qualify for the 2014 Olympics?

The IIHF World Championships enter their second week with a bang, with two key clashes to determine first place in each group. First the morning starts with Kazakhstan/USA and Italy/Czech Republic, before rewarding us with Finland/Canada and Sweden/Russia to end it off.

It's the end of the first week of the IIHF World Championships, and the differences between the top nations and the bottom ones are beginning to be clearly defined. There are some key battlegrounds emerging for the quarterfinal positions, so follow today's action on Puck Worlds to see how it unfolds!

Lightning players and coaches represent their countries in the 2012 tournament. We recap their early performances.