Sweden continued its domination at the start of the tournament by easily winning 8-1 over Kazakhstan on Friday at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Anton Wahlberg led the charge with two goals and two assists for the Swedes, who have a perfect record of two wins after two games. On Thursday, they defeated Slovakia 5-2 behind a four-point performance from Axin Sandin-Pellikka.
Sandin-Pellikka was much calmer in this match after his exploits the day before. He was one of five Sweden players not to score against the Kazakhs. After scoring Thursday, Montreal Canadiens prospect Rasmus Bergqvist was also shut out.
In addition to Wahlberg, six other players found the back of the net in the Swedes’ camp. Victor Eklund and David Granberg added an assist in addition to scoring.
David Edstrom, Linus Eriksson, Felix Nilsson and Oskar Vuollet were the other scorers. Zeb Forsfjall and Viggo Gustafsson collected two assists.
Kazakhstan is making their first appearance at this tournament since 2020. They were able to celebrate a goal against one of the favorite teams in this tournament when Artur Gross hit the target in the second period. Sweden, however, took a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Faced with a barrage of 52 shots, Kazakh goalkeeper Vladimir Nikitin made 44 saves. On the other side of the ice, Marcus Gidlof was much less busy and turned away 15 pucks.
Kazakhstan returns to action on Saturday when they face Czechia. Sweden will have a day off before playing Switzerland on Sunday.
Victory at the last minute for Slovakia
Slovakia scored late in the match to escape with a 2-1 victory over Switzerland on Friday at TD Place.
Jan Chovan took advantage of a blunder by the Swiss defense to score the winning goal with 3:18 remaining. Defenseman Leon Muggli sent the puck in front of his net and the forward beat the goalie with a wrist shot.
Slovakia obtains its first victory of the tournament while Switzerland remains winless after two matches.
Samuel Urban stopped 28 shots in the victory. On the other side, Christian Kirsch stopped 27 shots.
Daniel Jencko gave the Slovaks the lead with his second goal of the tournament on a deflection.
Eric Schneller was the only scorer for Switzerland. The striker from Geneve-Servette HC, in the Swiss National League (NL), made a nice breakaway maneuver to score.
Finland was hot against Germany
Petteri Rimpinen stopped 31 pucks and Finland signed its first victory in this Junior World Cup by defeating Germany by a score of 3 to 1 on Friday.
Emil Pieniniemi opened the scoring at the end of the first period with the first goal for the Finnish delegation in this competition.
Arttu Alasiurua then doubled his team’s lead during the second engagement. Alasiurua took advantage of a quick counter-attack to place the puck behind goaltender Linus Vieillard.
Germany, however, responded just over two minutes later. Clemens Sager surprised Rimpinen with a turning shot from the right circle.
The Finns knocked on the door in the third period, but Vieillard gave nothing. The young German made 40 saves in the defeat. Jesse Kiiskinen confirmed his team’s victory by scoring into an empty net.
Both teams will have Saturday off before returning to action on Sunday. Finland will face the United States, while Germany will face Canada.
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