Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Jurco helped his team to a lead, but the Slovaks couldn't keep it.

Jurco's goal in a preliminary-round game today at the hockey world championship in St. Petersburg, Russia, made it 2-0 in the second period, but Belarus stormed back to win, 4-2, in a Group B match. (Belarus is coached by Dave Lewis, who was head coach of the Wings in 2002-04, after years as an assistant under Scotty Bowman.)

Slovakia stayed among the group's top four teams (which advance to the knockout stage) with six points, three more than the U.S., which does not play today.

It has been a good tournament for Jurco, who has two goals and three assists in four games. He could be part of a Wings trade package this off-season, so anything he does to increase his stock (even on a bigger ice sheet and in games not nearly as physical as in the NHL) would help. While he doesn't have much of a body of NHL work (15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points in 143 games) his appeal includes size (6-feet-1, 203 pounds) and age (23).

Come back to the Free Press later for updates on Gustav Nyquist, as his Swedes take on Kazakhstan, and Teemu Pulkkinen, whose Finns face Hungary. (It has been a rough go for the Hungarians -- they aren't the only winless squad in the 16-team tournament, but their goal differential is 17-to-4.)

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.