EHT: Sweden blanked on home ice

07 Feb 2013 | Fredrik Pålsson

Alexander Salak was brilliant with 37 saves when Czechs won the first game of the Oddset Hockey Games in Malmö.

Sweden failed in their first game of the Oddset Hockey Game. With the World Championships in Stockholm this spring the tournament has moved to Malmö this year to bring more spectators to the games but despite this just 5 097 spectators came to see the game and the few who came wasn't very pleased with what they saw.

Sweden started best and created some good chances in the first period but Alexander Salak showed what a great goalkeeper he is with several good saves. Instead the Czechs took the lead when Michal Vondrka got a breakaway after a stolen puck and scored high for 1-0.

Sweden had a lot of possesion and fired away 37 shots against Salak but they did a quite poor effort and didn't play strong enough in front of the Czech goals. The Czechs could control their game playing on the lead and go on counter attacks.

2-0 came early in the third period, the Czechs put some pressure on goal and after some bounces in front of the goal and Jiri Novotny managed to get his stick to puck to beat Joacim Ericsson.

Ericsson made some good saves on the Czech counter attacks but even if Sweden didn't test him good enough Alexander Salak showed why he is leading goaltender in Elitserien just before Ericsson.

The tournament will continue on Saturday and Sunday hopefully more fans will turn up to see the games then.