Four goals by Marius Holtet against France

09 May 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Norway’s Marius Holtet is not known as a goal scorer but in today’s World Championship game against France he scored four goal.

Marius Holtet scored four goals in 55 games for Färjestad in Elitserien. Today he scored as many – in the same game. Holtet has now scored six goals in this World Championship.

"Marius did a good playoff in Sweden and has brought a lot of energy into the group, and today he was absolutely brilliant", said the Norwegian coach Roy Johansen.

Norway beat France 5-2 in the last day of the Qualifying stage. Norway will continue to the quarter finals while the tournament is over for France.

"It was just one of those days when everything goes in. It's not very often you get four goals in a game", says Holtet after the game. "It was a big game for us because now we don't have to rely on Switzerland losing to the United States to get in."

The start of the game couldn’t have been better for Norway. Per-Åge Skrøder scored 1-0 at 3:26 on the first power play of the game and Masius Holtet needed only 26 seconds to make it 2-0.

Damien Fleury scored 2-1 at 11 minutes but Holtet got his second goal at 17:50.

France got closer again in the middle of the second period when the captain Laurent Meunier scored a shorthanded goal but once again Holtet stepped up and made it 4-2 on a power play.

Holtet’s fourth goal came at 52:26 and was the last goal of the game.

It is not decided yet who Norway gets to play in the quarter final. "We avoid Czech Republic and Russia if it is possible, but we take what we get. We have probably a better chance against Germany or Finland", says Roy Johansen.