Another day at the 2016 IIHF World Championship brought another evening of Group A action in Moscow.
In the early game, Adam Larsson and Sweden took on their geographic neighbors, Norway. The Swedes got goals from Gustav Nyquist (unassisted), Martin Lundberg shorthanded (assisted by Johan Fransson and Mattias Sjogren) and Robert Rosen on the power play (from Erik Gustafsson and Alexander Wennberg).
Norway scored both of their goals in the third period. Mats Rosseli Olsen scored about three minutes in off assists to Mathis Olimb and Johannes Johannesen to cut the Swedish lead to 2-1. Then, with the goaltender pulled, Andreas Martinsen would score with just under two minutes left in regulation to make it 3-2 (assists to Jonas Holos and Olimb) to make things interesting.
But Sweden would hold on and pick up their fourth win of the tournament. Swedish goalie Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves on 25 shots while Norway’s Lars Haugen was equal to 32 of 35 shots faced.
Adam Larsson had four shots on net and was a minus-1 all in 20:47 of ice time.
Sweden next takes on Switzerland on Sunday.
In the later game played at Moscow’s Ice Palace, Sergei Kalinin and a newly fortified Team Russia took on Switzerland.
The Russian team benefitted from the Stanley Cup elimination of the Washington Capitals by adding superstars Alex Ovechkin, Dmitri Orlov and Yevgeni Kuznetsov to their roster. Adding these guys to an already potent offense had to have been daunting for the Swiss, who had the unenviable task of taking on Russia today.
And the Russians wasted no time in getting on the board. Just 5:13 into the game, Ivan Telegin beat Swiss goalie Reto Berra off an assist from Roman Lyubimov to take a quick 1-0 lead. Amazingly, they would be held to only that one goal until the 8:40 mark of the second when Caps teammates Kuznetsov and Ovechkin teamed up to make it 2-0. Kuznetsov’s goal was his first of the tournament.
Going into the third period, the Swiss had kept the Russians to only two goals. But the wheels fell off in the third frame.
Telegin scored his second of the game about eight minutes and change into the period to make it 3-0 (assist to Lyubimov). Sergei Shirokov made it 4-0 (from Nikita Zaitsev) about six minutes later.
Switzerland finally got on the board at the 18:44 mark of the third when Simon Moser scored from Yannick Weber and former Islander-Nino Niederreiter.
Russia would get that goal back at the 19:43 mark of the period when Sergei Mozyakin beat Berra to make it 5-1 (assists to Pavel Datsyuk and Stepan Sannikov). And that was the final score of a wild one.
The Swiss hung in, but in the end, Russia’s offensive firepower was just too much. Reto Berra made 33 saves on 38 Russian shots. For Russia, Sergei Bobrovsky was nearly perfect. He and Ilya Sorokin combined to make 34 saves on 35 Swiss shots. (Sorokin played just over two minutes in the first period in relief of Bobrovsky).
Kalinin’s line read one shot and a plus-2 in 9:53 of ice time spread out over 18 shifts.
Russia’s next game takes place in Moscow on Monday against Norway.