The home country, bidding to banish the demons of their 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Canada in the final of last year's event in Prague, were highly fancied to get their pursuit of the title off to a comfortable start.

Backed by a raucous sold-out crowd inside the arena, they failed to live up to expectations as the Czech Republic picked up a deserved victory.

Tomas Kundratek put the Czechs ahead in the opening period and Roman Cervenka doubled the trouble for the Russians by putting his side 2-0 in front early in the second.

Michal Birner's empty-netter late on then put the result of the match beyond all doubt as his team surged to the summit of Group A.

Earlier on the first day of the tournament, defending champions Canada recorded a comfortable 5-1 success against North American rivals the United States in Group B at the Yubileyny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg.

Brendon Gallagher broke the deadlock in the first period to give the 25-time winners the lead before Patrick Maroon equalisedd for last year's bronze medallists with a well-placed backhanded strike.

It proved to be a rare moment of joy for the American side as Canada ran in four answered goals, with Gallagher's second being followed by efforts from Matt Duchene, Boone Jenner and Brad Marchand.

"We’re becoming a team as we go along," said Gallagher.

"It was a good start for us.

"Hopefully as the tournament goes on, we’ll get better and better."

Elsewhere, Sweden secured victory in their opener by beating Latvia 2-1 in Group A at the Ice Palace and Finland signalled their intentions with a thumping 6-2 win against Belarus in Group B over at the Yubileyny Sports Palace.

There was a strong Governmental presence at the Opening Ceremony of the event in the Russian capital as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was joined by Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

IIHF President René Fasel, set to be appointed for a sixth term as the head of the governing body as he is the only candidate standing in the election, due to be held on May 19, was also present and expressed his delight at bringing the World Championship to Russia.

"Coming to Russia is always great,” he said.

“This is a real hockey country - you can feel the way people are looking forward to the start of the Championship.

"We’ve got an arena here that’s almost brand new and we should congratulate the people who built it.”