Swedes run over host for first victory

Sweden was eager to score its first victory after the opening loss in a shootout against Russia. But the surprising win of the Germans against Team USA has shown that the co-host poses a tough nut to crack.

The first minutes brought the expected game. Sweden was making the plays, but not yet in a way that threatened last night’s hero Thomas Greiss too much. This changed with an Oliver Ekman-Larsson shot at the 6:56 minute mark that got deflected past the Islanders goalie by a German defender for the Swedish 1-0 lead.

Seconds later Germany found itself on the first powerplay with which the Swedish defense had no problems. Sweden kept being dominant and forced Greiss to make a couple of big saves and so it was quite a surprise when Patrick Hager scored his second goal of the tournament with a wrist shot in the upper left corner to lock the game up at 1-1 after 16 minutes.

The Tre-Kronors regained the lead just seconds into the middle period on a power-play. Victor Hedman spotted Carolina Hurricanes forward Victor Rask on the right side and he could beat Greiss with a one-timer.

The guys in black and white were reluctant to give up though and got their chance on a powerplay when Carl Klingberg received a slashing penalty. Although the time expired on that one, the time with a man more gave them momentum and so they forced another penalty against Ekman-Larsson. The combinations became more precise now, confidence grew and at the 25:26 mark they could capitalize and got even again at 2-2. Hager deflected a Felix Schütz shot and Philip Gogulla banged in the rebound. Both goal scorers for Germany made good use of their home advantage since they play their club games at LanxessArena as well.

Suddenly the game went up and down. An unsuccessful powerplay for Sweden was followed by a goal post hit by Patrick Reimer on the other side. The game was open now. The next team to score turned out to be Sweden after 35:14 minutes. Marcus Krüger broke through the German defense with a physical play. Greiss could deflect the first shot to the post, but with his second attempt Krüger found Linus Omark in front of an open net, who only had to tip it in.

With 2.5 seconds left in the period Sweden finally got the first two goal lead of the game. William Nylander saw Minnesota Wild defender Jonas Brodin open on the right side and he scored the 4-2 for the Scandinavians with a one-timer.

Ten minutes into the last period the biggest star on the ice, Gabriel Landeskog, decided the game with his first goal. After creating traffic in front of the German goalie, he picked up a rebound off a Victor Rask shot and put it in with a spin move. William Nylander set the game to 6-2 with a perfect shot into the left corner of the goal just a minute later. Another minute later Nylander scored again as the Swedes were now using their skating skills to make the German team dizzy.

In the end the Tre-Kronors celebrated a 7-2 win that might have been 1 or 2 goals too high, but still deserved.

Both teams will play again on monday. Sweden will take on the USA, while Germany’s task won’t get any easier when they face Russia.

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