Sweden stuns Russia to win LG Hockey Games

After Thursday snow storm the fans had found their way to the Globe today and a 11 071 crowd watched Sweden defeat Russia 6-2 to win the LG Hockey Games for the 11th time in 21 attempts.

Sweden stunned Russia at the start of the game and forced Russia to a time out after 4:05, then Sweden had 2-0 lead, but the night mare would continue for Russia as Sweden extended to 3-0 at 6:45 and to 4-0 at 7:33! The lead should have been extended even further but Sweden failed to take advantage of two consecutive long 5 on 3 power plays as frustated Russians took several penalties. When Sweden got their first penalty at 16:39 it was the first time of the game when Russia were able to create to some chances. 23-6 in shots on goal says most about how the first period was played.

"It doesn't matter who we play, all teams plays defensively against us here as they know we will come out strong from the start. But it's not always we got rewarded for our offensive play but today we scored on our chances", defender David Petrasek said after the game.

It was Martin Thörnberg who gave Sweden the perfect start to the game when he scored an easy opening goal at 2:04. Marcus Krüger and Björn Melin set up a good attack, Mikhail Biryukov saved the first attempt but dropped the puck and Thörnberg could tap it in just inches from the goal line. Two minutes later Krüger doubled the lead, another easy finish in an empty net after great play from behind the netby Dick Axelsson. 3-0 was a bluliner by David Petrasek on a power play. 4-0 was scored by Magnus Johansson who today played with the jersey #200 to celebrate that this was his game number 200 in the Swedish national team. Biryukov should probalby has saved the shot and after conceding four goals in seven minutes he was replaced by Aleksei Volkov.

"I felt we would win already after two minutes, we had such great enthusiasm", the Swedish coach Pär Mårts said after the game. "It's great to see what level we can play at if even we couldn't play there all game", Jonas Andersson commented on the first period.



After the brilliant first period by Sweden they lost focus in the second while the Russians lifted their game. After having 23 shots on goal in the first, Sweden only had three shots on goal in the second. The period was  filled with penalties which had bad effect on the game quality. At 12:31 Russia was awarded a penalty shot. After being asleep for most of the period the home fans finally woke up and booed heavily when Maksim Rybin took the shot. Perhaps that was enough to disturb him because Stefan Liv made an easy save on weak shot. After the penalty shot the fans started the wave around the Globe Arena.

It felt like Sweden was only trying to play the game out, but just seconds into the third Dick Axelsson made it 5-0 on a rebound from close range. Just before the three minute mark a fight erupted after a late challenge on Stefan Liv, Live got upset and throw a good punch at Evgenij Artyukhin. Surprisingly Liv wasn't given any penalty for it. At 5:27 Russia finally manage to please the quite large Russian part of the crowd when Evgeny Kuznetsov beat took the puck past Liv with a nice deke. Thörnberg made it 6-1 after a break away after leaving the penalty bench. Russia got another goal back with a great high shot by Aleksandr Galimov.

After a first period when there was only one team on the ice Russia was the better team for the two second periods but Sweden did a good work defending their big lead and played safe and with control. Tomorrow the tournament will finish with the games Russia versus Czech Republic and Sweden versus Finland. Sweden have won the tournament but all the other teams have a chance to finish in second place.

Pär Mårts was of course very pleased with winning the tournament at home, "I felt like this was the game we needed to win. A very strange game with our incredible start, we had it very hard in the second but Stefan (Liv) was very good.", Mårts said. "We have a better energy this tournament and we carry out the game we should play" he said about his teams development this season.


1-0 (2:04) Martin Thörnberg (Marcus Krüger, Björn Melin)
2-0 (4:05) Marcus Krüger (Dick Axelsson, Jonas Andersson)
3-0 (6:45) David Petrasek (Jonas Andersson) PP
4-0 (7:33) Magnus Johansson (Björn Melin, Martin Thörnberg)
5-0 (40:18) Dick Axelsson (Mattias Sjögren)
5-1 (45:27) Evgeny Kuznetsov (Yuri Trubachev)
6-1 (47:50) Martin Thörnberg (Niklas Persson)
6-2 (52:15) Aleksandr Galimov (Aleksandr Kalyanin, Gennady Churilov)

 

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