U18: Sweden wins against Russia to qualify for the finals

Sweden was a better team for most of the game, but the Russians had protected their 1-0 lead more than half of the game. Russian goalie Andrei Vasilevski was the main star of the game, he had several remarkable saves, including the one 10 seconds before the end of the 1st period, when Pedan almost deflected Rask`s pass into his own goal.

In the 32nd minute Jeremy Boyce Rotevall tied the game and it was a huge relief for Sweden. "I think we were quite nervous in the 1st period. In the locker room, we said to each other to stay more cool. We started to skate better and play more physical game. Since that, we were a stronger team," said Boyce Rotevall.

The crucial moment came in the 46th minute, when Russian goalie Andrei Vasilevski was hit in the head by the puck and referees let the game continue. The defenseman Alexei Vasilevski had a chance to clear the puck from in front of an empty net, but tragically missed it and Björklund scored the winning goal. "I think I played my best. The 3rd goal was the decisive one. I was very angry at the referees, because they were supposed to stop the play. I was hit by the puck in the mask. I am very sad now, we came to win the whole thing," said Andrei Vasilevski, who was chosen as the top star of the game. Russia lacked the dominancy of their 1st line Yakupov-Kucherov-Grigorenko from their past games. Then Sweden added one more goal into an empty net.


Germany came into the 5th place game without their best player of the tournament, goalie Marvin Cüpper, and also without the passion everyone could see against Canada in the quarterfinals. Finland was much more dangerous, but ironically scored while shorthanded. The German defence made a mistake on their offensive blue line and Kallela and Liedes went two on one. Heikke Liedes made a backhand move and beat Lehr.

Germany outshot Finland in the 2nd period, but Finnish forwards were much more dangerous. When Valkonen and Salomäki added other goals, Germany resigned and Richard Ullberg made his 1st shut-out of the tournament. "We controlled for the most of the time the pace of the game. We were able to capitalize our scoring chances and I think we can be happy with our performance today," said Joel Armia of the Finnish team. However, he wanted to achieve more at this tournament. "We wanted to win the gold medals, so we are not satisfied with our achievement," he added.

Germans played against Finland after a heroic battle against Canada. "We tried to put everything into this game, but Finns were simply too good. They are good in one on one situations and in skating. It was our last game on the tournament, so we might have been little tired after an exhausting game against Canada. That game cost us a lot of strength. We fulfilled our major goal, to stay in elite division," said German forward Daniel Fischbuch.

Semi Final
Sweden-Russia 3-1 (0-1, 1-0, 2-0)
Goals: 4. Smurov - 31. Boyce Rotevall, 46. and 60. Björklund

5th place game
Finland-Germany 6-0 (1-0, 2-0, 3-0)
Goals: 15. Liedes, 24. Valkonen, 30. Salomäki, 43. Granlund, 52. and 59. Armia

 

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