Sweden scores ten in Malmö Arena

Based on the first days of this championship everybody knew that Sweden would win this game. The questions were - How many goals would they score? And would goalie Marcus Högberg keep his net clean like he did against Canada in a pre-tournament game? The answer to the the first question was -  Ten. And to the second - Yes, and he only needed to make 13 saves to do it.

The Malmö trained Erie Otters player André Burakowsky hadn't had much luck in the first two games, but this one was his. He scored three goals before his friends and family in the old home arena.

"I love this arena!", Burakowsky says to Eurohockey after the game. "I've never scored a hat-trick here before". 

"It was a good day, but I don't really enjoy playing this kind of game", says Elias Lindholm who scored his first goal of the championship. "It's good that we had many different scorers".

Sweden scored three goals in each of the first two periods and added another four in the last.

It was all about Sweden from the start. In the third minute both Filip Sandberg and Linus Arnesson had shots in the outside of the net and the crowd thought it was a goal.

At 3:26 Gustav Olofsson opened the scoring with a shot from the slot. Norwegian goalie Henrik Haukeland had lost the balance after his own defender accidently tripped him.

Nine minutes into the game Malmö native André Burakowsky got his first goal of the tournament when he took a well placed shot from the right face-off circle during the first Swedish power-play.

Norway got to play 5-on-3 for a while in the middle of the first period but created no really big scoring chances in front of Marcus Högberg.

From the exact same spot as at his first goal André Burakowsky took a shot during the second Swedish power-play. The puck quickly bounced out of the net but after video review the referee confirmed that is was a goal.

Sweden outshot Norway 14-1 in the first period but with better Norwegian netminding the score wouldn't be 3-0.

"We are not even close in this game. We give them too much time", says Norwegian defender Mattias Nørstebø who is familiar with Swedish hockey after three seasons with Brynäs.

After a face-off in the Norwegian zone at 21:16 Robert Hägg took a one-timer from the blue-line for 4-0.

André Burakowsky completed his hat-trick at five minutes of the middle act. A Norwegian defender fell and there was nobody to stop Nick Sörensen from approaching the net. Haukeland saved the shot but Burakowsky picked up the rebound and scored his third of the night.

Norway got a power-play after Sebastian Collberg brought down Haukeland but couldn't get any play in the Swedish end. Then Norway's Didrik Svendsen was sent off for slashing and Sweden went three for three on the power-play when Filip Forsberg easily found Sebastian Collberg for 6-0.

One of Norway's best chance in the second period was actually when Sweden's Christian Djoos deflected the puck towards his own net, but Högberg was awake to save it.

Anton Karlsson mostly played in short-handed situations, still he created a couple of good scoring chances when Andreas Johnson spent time on the penalty bench.

A minute before the end of the period Markus Søberg got a great chance to score for Norway, but Högberg made a nice save on his break-away. The second period was by far the best Norwegian. Here they got ten of their thirteen shots on goal.

It appeared as if Sweden had lost some energy during the second intermission but when Andreas Johnson was screening Haukeland at 43:40, Swedish defender Robin Norell took a shot from the blue-line for 7-0.

For the eighth Swedish goal Collberg rounded the net and found Alexander Wennberg who easily could tip it in.

Elias Lindholm scored Sweden's fourth power-play goal of the game when he took a drop pass from Filip Forsberg and buried the puck above the shoulder of Haukeland.

Norway got a couple of late penalties and the Swedes chaced number ten. They would get it at 57:37 when Erik Karlsson found Nick Sörensen. But they didn't get number eleven like the Russian did against the same opposition on the opening day.

Norway will have to beat Switzerland in the last game of he group stage to avoid relegation games while Sweden in their next game will play Russia for the first place of Group B.

"I don't know anything about the Russian team", says Burakowsky. "But when you meet them here in the hallways, they look twice as big as we do. But length isn't always good in ice hockey. We are better skaters".

 

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