Sweden keeps perfect record

Sweden was already qualified for the quarter finals before the game and it was obvious that they didn't have the motivation to play at their best in last round robin game against Latvia. Sweden was the slightly better team throughout the game but Latvia had their chances and could have stolen some points here if Sweden hadn't score some goals at the right moments.

Two decisive goals were Jimmie Ericsson's (only Swedish player not playing in NHL) 4-2 late in the second period, scoring off a bounce from the boards and Alexander Edler's 5-3 in the third just after Latvia had a few good chances to tie the game. Edler was playing his first game of the tournament after being suspended in the first two games.

Even if the game wasn't very well played there were a lot of chances at both ends and both Henrik Lundqvist and Kristers Gudlevskis came up with some good saves. Both teams showed that they can play well on power play with three goals each with the man advantage. Erik Karlsson does a great job of running the Swedish PP and scored his third goal of the tournament and added an assist.

Sweden finishes the round robin with three wins and will qualify directly for the quarter finals. But even with the perfect record there are many question marks around the Swedish performance so far, especially playing at even strength. The team are missing the two Henriks, Sedin and Zetterberg and many of the other offensive stars like Niklas Bäckström and Daniel Sedin haven't got their scoring going even if Daniel Sedin had two assists today.

"This play isn't good enough, we have a lot to work on. First of all we need to handle the puck better. We lose it on bad positions", said Sweden's 1-0 scorer Patrik Berglund.

But perhaps it's a good sign that the Swedish performance has been at it's best so far. Sweden's gold in 2006 was won after an uneven round robin performance.

Latvia has three straight losses but haven't been outplayed in any of the games. Perhaps they can surprise in the qualification round?

 

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