Sweden beats Latvia

15 May 2012 | Fredrik Pålsson

Latvia played their third consecutive game without scoring when Sweden dominated the game and scored three power play games to win 4-0.

Sweden came out strong and it was only a matter of time before Sweden would score and it was Loui Eriksson who did it at 4:39.

Henrik Zetterberg got the puck behind the goal and found Eriksson all alone in front of Maris Jucers who started in Latvia instead of injured Masalskis. Eriksson made no mistake and Sweden took the lead for the seventh game in a row.

At that point it seemed that Sweden would cruise away to a big lead but the Swedish storm against the Latvian goal calmed down.

2-0 still came when Sweden got their first power play of the game and Jakob Silfverberg scored on a rebound.

Niklas Bäckström played his first game of the tournament and got an assist on the 2-0 goal: "It's fun to be here. I'm not so happy with my own performance".

One of the most spectacular moments of the second period was when Latvian defender Janis Andersons dived for the puck and stopped it with his stick just millimeters before it crossed the goal line, there he showed some of that will that Latvian coach Ted Nolan has missed on his team during the tournament. Shortly after Viktor Hedman stopped the puck on the goal line at the other end after the puck dropped down behind Fasth on one of few Latvian chances.

When Kaspars Daugavins got his and Latvia's second penalty of the game Sweden added a third goal when Henrik Zetterberg fired home a shot from the slot. That goal was the only goal of the second period.

In the third period Latvia's Koba Jass went bananas. First he started a fight with Erik Karlsson and both were sent off two minutes for roughing, and when they got back on the ice Jass immediately attacked Karlsson again and was sent out of the game with a very well deserved 5+game penalty for roughing. On the following power play Johan Franzén got an easy goal for 4-0 after many saves by Maris Jucers who made a very good game in goal for Latvia. Despite a huge dominance by Sweden in the third that was the only goal of the period.

Erik Karlsson said after the attack from Koba Jass: "It started with that he tried to check my head. When he jumped at me again I tried to make sure I didn't do anything stupid before Thursday's game.

"A solid effort by us", says Swedish defenseman Niklas Kronwall. "We hold the puck well, shoot 44 shots. Maybe we just need some more traffic in front of the net".

"We tried to do our best and keep them outside but we shouldn't take those penalties", says the Latvian captain Janis Sprukts.

Sweden will now play the Czech Republic in the quarter finals on Thursday while the tournament is over for Latvia who finished the scoring without scoring a goal for over 216 minutes.

"It feels safe in PK and PP and that will be important in the future", says Erik Karlsson. We are favorites and we will win but we have to play tactical and don't give them any counter attacks"