Swedish Junior Hockey Team Makes History with Victory Over Defending Champion Canada at World Cup

It is rare for Canadian hockey players to lose at the international level. Considering the junior category, we are talking about even fewer cases. For example, this happened exactly once in the last year, in the World Cup group.

news-item-description">In the fight for the first place in the group, the Swedes triumphed over the defending champion Canada 2:0 and thus still did not concede in the tournament.

This did not deter the “maple leaves” from winning the tournament overall. This time, however, it is already certain that Canada will not win its group for the second time in a row. It was decided by their loss to Sweden.

The Swedes had a slight disadvantage before the duel with the favorite of the tournament. They played in front of the home audience less than 22 hours after the end of the match against Germany, which they managed with a score of 5:0. The overseas hockey players were rested, because they last played on Wednesday, when they demolished Latvia 10:0.

So-called “back to back” matches, i.e. 2 duels played 2 days in a row, occur regularly at the championship. However, they are much more difficult if the opponent of the team playing for the second day in a row is rested. Before the meeting of the two strongest teams of the A-group, only Slovakia managed to win 2 times from the teams at an imaginary disadvantage. It was specifically about the confrontation with the Swiss, which Ivan Feneš’s wards managed with a class difference. It came after a successful fight with the Czech Republic.

However, the Swedes, who beat Canada with a clean sheet, have already made it to the list. But what is more impressive, the “three crowns” did not collect a single accurate hit for the entire 3 tournament meetings and acquired a score of 13:0. He stood in goal in two of them Hugo Hävelid. The only 19-year-old undrafted goalkeeper also wiped out the Latvians, in total he eliminated 41 attempts directed between his goalposts so far at the championships.

The biggest joy of the drafted hockey players must have been in the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks. It was the Swedes, who are part of the prospect group of these units, that decided the victory of the northerners. The defenseman scored two Canadian points for assists Theo Lindsteinmanaged to score To Tom Willander a Noahovi Östlundovi.

Swedes enjoy hockey, they play with great taste and joy. “We were slightly nervous, but in the end we managed it very well. It was a lot of fun,” said the already mentioned scorer of the winning goal after the meeting Tom Willander.

“I think the Canadian fans were amazing as well. There weren’t that many of them, but they did a great job,” answered a question about the audience. The duel was watched by a sold-out arena, i.e. 11,512 spectators.

Relentlessly cheering fans and a strong team spirit, this is undoubtedly the Swedish recipe for success. Of course together with an extremely high-quality selection. Even the defeated Canadians themselves recognized the play of the host country.

“Sweden is an excellent team. They played 3 matches without conceding a goal, so their confidence grew even more. They succeeded today as well. We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t succeed even once.” the Canadian winger evaluated the progress Jordan DumaisColumbus Blue Jackets prospect.

Although the most important will be the play-off matches in the finals, in which everything can be completely different, the Swedes clearly showed in the group that they are to be reckoned with. It proved that overseas teams are not invincible, and that even with the previous day’s game in their legs, big things can be achieved against strong opponents.

2023-12-30 09:44:00
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