EHT: Sweden beats Russia on power play

11 Feb 2012 | Fredrik Pålsson

Three power plays goals helped Sweden to a 4-1 victory at home against Russia.

It was the best game of the tournament so far with fast and powerful ice hockey. And at the end Sweden stood on the ice as winners after 4-1 against Russia. The game was scoreless for a long time. There were many penalties and both teams had several power plays. Sweden had two chances on 5 on 3 but failed to convert.

Swedish pressure against the Russian goal (Photo: Ann-Louise Söderberg)

The longer time went the importance of the first goal got bigger and bigger and it was Sweden who got it on a power play 18:46 into the second period. Just eleven seconds after Tony Mårtensson missed the best chance of the game so far. When Mårtensson missed, Russia got a penalty and on the power play it was Mattias Ekholm who found the net with a powerful shot from the blueline.

It was a deserved lead for Sweden who had been the slighter better team so far. But after losing the lead against the Czechs a second goal was important for Sweden and it came quickly in the third period. Nicklas Danielsson shot an fast but loose shot on goal but Ilya Ezhov didn't see the puck and was beaten for 2-0.

After the goal it felt like Sweden was in control of the game but three minutes later Mattias Ekholm was penalized for slashing and Russia only needed five seconds to score on the power play. Aleksandr Ryazentsev shot a very hard shot that went in high behind Viktor Fasth. "I never saw the puck so it must have been a hard shot", Fasth said about the only he conceded.

Russia just scored their only goal of the game (Photo: Roman Kucera)

After the goal Russia had their best period of the game but Fasth stood up well against the Russian attempts. Instead Tony Mårtensson broke a Russian pass on the offensive blue line and set up Jakob Silfverberg who made it 3-1 with a another great shot. "It was nice to squeeze it in", Silverberg said about the goal.

And just under one minute later Tony Mårtensson scored himself making the final score 4-1 with Sweden's third power play goal of the game.

Sweden celebrates as Ezhov is beaten. (Photo: Ann-Louise Söderberg)

Sweden's coach Pär Mårts was very pleased, "It was a great game with good speed. Down at the bench you see how fast the game is. It was a fair win, we are doing what we are suppose to", he said and added "We played much better defense than against the Czechs". About the opponents he said "The Russians are more skilled then the Czechs, we have to play better against them and that's probably why we played better today."

After the second day all teams have won one game each and all teams can still win the tournament. Tomorrow Russia will play Czech Republic and Sweden will play against Finland.