Slovaks give Sweden a scare

Not all the fans took their seat before the first goal of the game was scored, it took only 25 seconds for Axel Kumlin to put his best into the long-distance shot which flew through the traffic right in the Slovakian net. However, the Slovaks had a very quick answer in their gameplan. Just three minutes after conceding, it was Matej Kasik who turned on turbo mode, skated past the Swedish defenders, and beat the opposing goalie with a quick wrist shot to the five-hole.

The game was even again, and it was the home team who wanted to take advantage of this restart; however, bad luck and Calle Clang stood in its way. While the bad luck hit the Slovaks when the puck jumped over Roman Faith’s stick just before the home forward could put his team into the lead, Clang kept his head and legs calm when he saved Kaslik’s breakaway. The fans were pleased not only by a very fast-paced and attractive match-up, but especially by the game Slovakia was showing, nevertheless, the hosts were having troubles with finishing their chances and putting themselves into good-enough scoring positions. The Slovaks could not take advantage even of a late penalty for Tre Kronor, and after the Swedes did the same in the dying seconds of the first period, both teams went back into the locker rooms with one goal apiece.

The second period could have started as same as its predecessor, right after the opening faceoff Elliot Ekmark skated in between the circles, but his shot was stopped by the right post of the Slovak goal. However, fans of Tre Kronor did not have to mourn for long. The Slovaks went short-handed two minutes into the period, and just before the power play ended, Sweden moved the puck very well in the offensive zone, and Daniel Ljungman was at the end of this combination. His shot hit the post as well, but this time the puck bounced a lot better for the Nordic country.

Slovakia was desperate for more revenge and got pretty close to repeating its success from the first period. However, the Swedes knew very well they have to defend without any mistakes in order to keep this lead, and that is exactly what they did. The visitors only put themselves into troubles once when they committed a foul just before the half of the period, but the Slovaks could not punish them for this mistake. Thanks to this, the Swedes became the more active team of the game, and were keeping their net safe, although they were not able to double their lead, Simon Latkoczy was really doing his part between the pipes. In the last minute, Slovakian Martin Chromiak missed the crossbar by only few inches, therefore when the second horn went on, Tre Kronor were in a tight lead.

But in the latest period, the score changed pretty soon as well. Slovakia received a penalty in the second minute, and 31 seconds into the power-play, Erik Hedlund was left unguarded in the left circle, received a pass, and did aim as precisely as he wanted to. Penalties were really the dominant factor of the period as only three minutes later the Swedes went short-handed too, and again, this was converted. A very lucky bounce after Libor Nemec’s shot put the puck right at the stick of Samuel Rehak, who did not have any troubles with hitting the open net.

The Slovaks was only a goal of tying the game up once again, so both teams knew very well that the next minutes will be crucial. Tre Kronor was more successful in their job as they were able to prevent Slovakia from getting close to the Nordic goalie. Sweden was playing very maturely, however, the only mistake they made could have costed the visitors their lead. Although being one skater up, they let Robert Baco get to a lucky rebound twice, and only thanks to Calle Clang they kept a goal ahead. Fortunately for the Scandinavians, that was the only time they let their opponent get this close to scoring, the rest of the period was about Swedish professionality again. And while Simon Latkoczy did not want to let his team down either, no more goals were scored before the duel ended with the score of 3-2 for Sweden.