A crowd of 18,688 packed into the LANXESS Arena as Germany met the tournament fourth seeds in their opening Group A tie.

Tobias Rieder gave Germany an ideal start by finding the net in the 11^th minute, with the advantage staying at 1-0 when the close of the first period came.

While Germany maintained their narrow lead in the second period, Connor Murphy levelled the scores in the third.

The United States then pressed in an attempt to complete the comeback, but Patrick Hager struck for the hosts to earn them a memorable 2-1 win.

Second seeds Russia were also involved in a tightly contested Group A match, but narrowly edged out Sweden.

Elias Lindholm and Sergei Andronov scored for Sweden and Russia respectively during the tie, with overtime then required as the score remained locked on 1-1.

The match would be decided in a shootout, with a strike from Artemi Panarin giving Russia a 2-1 win.

Defending champions Canada were untroubled as they cruised past the Czech Republic in their first Group B match, which took place at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.

Canada beginning their pursuit of a third straight title, emerged as 4-1 winners.

The second Group B match saw Finland fend off an impressive fightback from Belarus, as the 2016 silver medallists began with a victory.

The Finnish team led 2-0 after the first period, but two goals in six minutes saw Belarus draw level in the contest.

However, a strike from Veli-Matti Savinainen gave Finland a narrow 3-2 victory.

The match took place a day after the Belarusian team were subject to a search by police at a Paris train station yesterday.

The incident led to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoning the French ambassador to call for an investigation, while the team received an apology from tournament organisers.

Competition continues tomorrow with three matches taking place in both groups.