Talbot and Gervais in Spengler Cup

The annual Spengler Cup tournament in Davos, Switzerland, is the hockey world's second-oldest on-going club-team tournament, after the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For fans, the annual six-day event at Vaillant Arena is one continuous party, on and off the ice, from the day after Christmas to New Year's Eve. But to the participating teams in the five-team invitational event, it's a grueling test of endurance to play up to five games in less than a week.

Now in its 84th edition, the 2011 tournament pits host team HC Davos against a field consisting of fellow Swiss National League A team Fribourg-Gotteron, KHL team Salavat Yualev Ufa, Czech team HC Vitkovice, Adler Mannheim from Germany's DEL and Team Canada.

Apart from a Canadian entry featuring a host of locked-out NHLers who are playing in Europe, this year's tournament features a pair of Flyers players suiting up for Fribourg-Gotteron. Both Max Talbot (who has been playing with Finnish team Ilves Tampere during the lockout) and Bruno Gervais (who had been German Bundesliga team Heilbronner Falken) signed short-term deals with Fribourg-Gotteron for the duration of the tournament.

Earlier today, Fribourg defeated Salavat Yulaev by a 5-1 score. Among his two helpers in the game, Talbot had a picturesque assist on an Andrei Bykov goal for his team's third goal of the game. Gervais also earned one assist in the match. Fribourg-Gotteron will play HC Vitkovice on Friday.

Highlights and statistics from today's game will be available here.

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Gostisbehere at World Juniors

Team USA will play its opening match at the 2013 World U20 Championships tomorrow morning in Ufa, Russia. Game time for the USA-Germany match will be at 9 a.m. eastern U.S./Canada time.

Flyers defense prospect Shayne Gostisbehere, a Florida native and a sophomore at Union College, will start on Team USA's second pairing. He is also likely to see extensive power play time for the Americans.

Earlier today, Canada destroyed Germany, 9-3. In other action, Russia squeaked by Slovakia in overtime, 3-2. In the other preliminary round pool, Finland dispatched Latvia, 5-1, and Sweden skated past the Czech Republic, 4-1.

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