“Swedish Hockey Players Make History in International Championship Opening Game”

Goalkeeper Frölundy became one of the two Swedish hockey players who made their mark in national history. Johansson became the oldest debutant at the championship at the age of 35 years and 305 days, while forward Leo Carlsson became the youngest at the age of 18 years and 136 days.

“He was great,” Lindberg said of Johansson, who already caught last year at the Beijing Olympics. “He’s been excellent all season, calm, communicates a lot with us and helps. It’s great to have a good goalkeeper at your back,” added the Bern striker.

As already mentioned, the opening game of both teams in the tournament did not offer very attractive hockey in the Nokia Arena. In the first period, thanks to the power play, the Germans were more active in shooting at the end, but they were unable to create a significant scoring chance.

In the second, the favored Swedes, who had eight reinforcements from the NHL, took over the activity, but even they did not create scoring opportunities for a long time. Goalkeepers Niederberger and Johansson therefore kept clean sheets without any major problems.

In the 25th minute, Lindberg had a promising chance, but from close range after a spectacular turn he stamped the post. Petersson was also close to opening the scoring after that, but Niederberger was ready with the concrete and shortly afterwards Raymond also failed.

The puck hit my stick, Lindberg admitted

Therefore, the score changed for the first time at the beginning of the third part. Right at the end of the second Swedish power play, Lindberg came through, easily deflecting Berggren’s shot in front of the goal. “We had a power play and we stayed in the offensive zone. I tried to block the shot, but it hit me in the stick and the puck ended up in the goal,” admitted Lindberg.

The Germans then slightly increased their activity and in the 49th minute Wagner got a chance. However, Johansson was attentive, he also managed Peterkova’s blow and managed to keep a clean sheet even during the opponent’s final power-play.

“Especially in the first period I thought we had enough chances to take the lead. Our goalkeeper was incredible and gave us a chance to win but unfortunately we didn’t take it. We had some power plays but we didn’t score. That was the main difference,” stated German striker Dominik Kahun.