EHT: Sweden finishes last in their own tournament

09 Feb 2013 | Fredrik Pålsson

Solid Finnish win against the Czech Republic while effiecient Russian's beats the Swedish hosts in Malmö.

An early goal and two quick goals in the middle of the second period lead Finland to a solid 3-0 win against the Czech Republic. Juha Metsola made his first international game at senior level after a impressive season with Tapparan in the SM-Liiga and earned a shutout.

"It felt good to play, even if it was a quite easy afternoon at work. In the first two periods I was mostly standing alone. In the third the Czechs got some dangerous shots, but it was no problem for me", Metsola said.

Finland got an early lucky lead when puck bounced in off a Czech player, Ville Lajunen got the goal, his first for Team Finland. After that Finland played solid defense and a weak Czech side didn't create much.

And when Juuso Hietanen and Velli-Matti Savinainen scored two goals within two minutes in the second period the game was over.

Russia got a strange leading goal against Sweden when Ilya Nikulin smashed a shot from the blue line when Johan Gustafsson was lying down on the ice after being hit by Shipachev. Gustafsson was injured and left the game two minutes after the goal was allowed despite heavy protests from the Swedish team.

The goal was scored at 14:20 on what actually was Russia's first shot on goal after a good Swedish start to the game. But Sweden would get a well deserved equalizer when Carl Söderberg got a lot of time in front goal on the power play.

Sweden dominated the game in the first but the Russian showed that they're individually much better and scored also on their first shot in the second period, which was their shot on the goal when Sergei Mozyakin scored on power play. Five miuntes later Evgeny Kuznetsov scored Russia's third goal on their fifth shot of the game after a quick counter attack.

After the goal Russia also played better. Sweden created some chances on power plays but Russia made it 4-1 in the third when a shot from Biryukov hit Kazionovs leg and went in.

The result takes Russia to the top of the standings while Sweden is last and will finish last in their home tournament.