Sweden beats Russia 2-0, receive bye to semifinals

Team Sweden took advantage of the momentum they have gained in this tournament. They netted two goals early into the first period thanks to captain Filip Forsberg to win 2-0 over Team Russia and advance directly to the semifinals.

Team Sweden was active from the very start of the game. Their first goal came just 6:05 into the first period. A nice pass from Elias Lindholm was well-received by Filip Forsberg, who deked goalie Andrei Vasilevski and sent the puck over his left pad.

Less than three minutes later, Sweden took a 2-0 lead thanks to Filip Forsberg again. Goalkeeper Oscar Dansk fired a long pass to Forsberg at the blueline, whose shot went right under the Vasilevski´s glove.

With 4:23 to go in the first, it could have been a three-goal lead for Sweden, but Andre Burakowsky´s slap shot from the blueline was deflected and narrowly missed the right post of the Russian net.

Alexander Delnov had a chance to cut the shortage just 99 seconds into the second period, but he hit the post on a dangerous rush in one of the few shots Team Russia took in the second period despite their improved, more aggressive game.

The third period was not very entertaining for the fans that came to Znojmo Arena. The Swedes were defending their two-goal lead that they took over the first ten minutes of the game.

But Team Russia was unable to get through the strong Swedish defence and goalkeeper Dansk stopped all of their shots with no problem.

In the last seconds of regulation time, Forsberg almost completed his hat trick but his one-timer from the slot went over the crossbar of Vasilevski´s net.

“We played very well tonight and didn´t give Team Russia many chances to score. We also did not have many penalties compared to our opponent and that decided the game,” explained goalie Oscar Dansk regarding his team´s 2-0 win.

Team Russia captain Anton Slepyshev was not very satisfied after the game: “We were not as active as we should have been in this game and their goalkeeper performed really well. We´ve got to improve before the next matches and do our best if we want to succeed.”