Two goals in seventeen seconds enough for Sweden

France has been great against tough teams like Canada and Slovakia, but lost the game with Italy earlier in the preliminary round. Now they were about to face Sweden, a yet unbeaten team at the top of the standings coming into the day. So maybe another surprise win was in store for us with the French team meeting yet another favorite.

And Team France actually did start off pretty well in the first. Initially, the Swedes looked like having advantage and more of the momentum, but couldn't capitalize on any of the chances as backup goaltender Florian Hardy did very well in the goal.

Soon after that, however, France got a couple of powerplay chances and really looked to capitalize on one of many counter-attacks. The second line with Antoine Roussel, Stephane Da Costa and Pierre-Edourard Bellemare looked very dangerous, but so did other French lines as the team under coach Dave Henderson looked very good again.

Bellemare on attack.
Photo: Roman Kucera

The shots were 9-9 after twenty as not only Hardy was impressive. New York Islanders netminder Anders Nilsson in the Swedish net did a pretty great job as well stopping all nine attempts.

Not much changed in the second period as both teams kept playing coast-to-coast and did well on both sides of the ice. That made for some great chances and France had more again with another powerplay. This time around, a successful penalty kill changed the direction the momentum went as the Swedes started getting more chances after the penalty.

Hardy and his defensemen were able to keep up and the goalie made a couple of great saves to keep the puck out. After fifteen minutes of the second period, the pressure was too big for the Frenchmen to handle. Joel Lundqvist opened the scoring following a Swedish powerplay when he tipped a shot by Dennis Rasmussen past Hardy and into the back of the net.

And it only took the Swedes seventeen seconds to double up the lead. Oscar Möller received a pass from Niclas Andersén in the perfect position on the left circle and gave Hardy no chance on that one, making it 2-0 quickly.

In the third period, Team France returned to the position of the team that dictates the flow. That led to a big goal for them with Stephane Da Costa. The Binghamton Senator found a way through the Swedish defense and when he was all alone on Nilssson, he made a beautiful backhand move on the goalie and then just tucked it in past the goal line.

The French team rallied around the goal and kept on firing pucks on net despite a couple of Swedish powerplays. Nilsson looked to be the only reason why the Swedes managed to keep their tiny lead until a very dramatic last minute of regulation.

Coach Henderson of Team France decided to pull Hardy for an extra attacker and it was a good call. 

With ten seconds left, the puck was to be dropped in the neutral zone with Hardy out and following a scramble on the faceoff dot, Damien Fleury got onto a breakaway and despite getting a couple of slashes and hooks, he managed to fire twice on Nilsson, but the Islanders youngster kept all shots, including a follow up by Stephane Da Costa, out of his net.

Despite great effort by France, the Swedes get all the points from this one and they also outshot their opposition 34-18. Team Sweden now goes back up to the first position in the standings of Group A.

"We tried to hang on as much as we could. We had a couple of chances late, but obviously, Sweden is a much better team than us." - Baptiste Amar

"It was similar to the game against Slovaks. We're frustrated that it didn't go our way, we should have come back." - Baptiste Amar

"We didn't expect an easy game. They've played great here, they're well-structured, dangerous on a counter-attack and fast skaters." - Gustav Nyquist

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