Sweden makes it easy over Italy

19 May 2014 | Luis Lopes

Linus Klasen was the best player on the ice with four assists. Italy relegated.

Group A

Italy 1 Sweden 5

For the first time in these World Championships Vancouver Canucks goalie Joacim Eriksson started over Anders Nilsson. Former Skelleftea goalie did have some work in the first period with 10 saves in 11 shots, but that was it for the rest of the game. In next 40 minutes he only made... 1 save(!!!) . In other hand Italy goalie Daniel Bellissimo had a long night, not because he was bad but because he faced 40 shots from Swedish players.

In the first period Italy gave some replica to a strong team Sweden has the shot stats can show. Sweden shot 12 times and Italy 10. The first goal of the game was scored by Red Wings Gustav Nyquist assisted by magician Linus Klasen with only 48 seconds in the clock. Italy responded at the middle of the period by Markus Gander(Bolzano player) well assisted by Luca Felicetti. And then came Sweden show in the power-play. Mattias Ekholm assisted by Linus Klasen scores the second goal for Sweden.

In the second and third period the game was different, Italy gave up emotionally and shot only one time to Joacin Ekisson net against 28 from Sweden. For the stats Nicklas Danielsson assisted Gustav Nyquist for the third goal at 34:24 and three minutes later Nicklas Danielsson made the fourth. In the third period Jamie Ericsson made the fifth goal for Sweden. With this victory Sweden still can hope finish first in the group. For that they need Canada to do a maximum two points game against Norway tomorrow. Italy is relegated in division 1 but they obviously expect to comeback for the 2016 tournament.

Rasmussen and Danielsson at the Italian net.
Photo: Roman Kucera