Faceoff Factor

After a surprising loss to the Swiss the day before, Sweden showed up for this game with a renewed confidence and was too much for Denmark to handle.

Three new players were added to the Swedish roster, but the biggest addition for this game was Henrik Lundqvist, who made 17 saves in the game.

The Swedes jumped on every loose puck and took a shot on every chance. They even scored a fluke goal when Stralman’s wrist shot from the blue line hopped over Hirsch’s goalie stick.

In addition to Stralman’s goal, Sweden registered goals from Jonsson, Nilson, Martensson (2), Fabricius, Weinhandl, and Wallin. Denmark’s Degn then ruined Lundqvist’s shutout bid when he scored his team’s lone goal in the third period.

"Some of our guys who play in Sweden read the Swedish newspapers, and [we knew] they got a lot of [criticism] there. I still think they came out pretty weakly, but we just weren’t ready today, and that was our mistake," said Denmark’s Jesper Damgaard.

"Normally we would have a chance, but we just gave them the game today. And they got better and better every minute," he said.

If anyone believed that this game would be a blowout win by Canada, they were in for a surprise.

Both teams were coming off of emotional wins. Canada faced Team USA on Tuesday and won the game 5-4 thanks to a goal by Dany Heatley with just 46.8 seconds remaining. Norway had a come-from-behind victory over Germany the night before – a win that had the Norwegian fans in attendance cheering with tears in their eyes.

Norway may not have the skill that some other teams possess, but they play as a team and are very good at frustrating their opponents. They collapse around their goaltender, they don’t allow many odd-man rushes, and they wait for the other team to make mistakes. In fact, during the second intermission of the Norway-Germany game when the Norwegians were down 2-1, Jakobsen told his teammates to be patient because the Germans would take penalties. That’s exactly what happened, and the game-winner was scored on a 5-on-3 advantage.

Goalie Pal Grotnes of Norway was the story of the game, stopping 51 of 53 shots, compared to the 16 shots Pascal Leclaire faced.

Mike Green scored a power play goal for Canada in the first period when Brent Burns’ shot missed the net, went around the boards and found his stick. He walked in and waited for Grotnes to go down before shooting the puck into the net.

In the second period, the Norwegians had a great scoring chance when Skroder was left with the puck and a wide open net, but he fanned on the shot.

Just seconds later, Rick Nash had the opportunity to add another goal for Canada when he had a breakaway from centre ice, but his stick snapped in two as he took the shot. It was just one of those games.

The problem with Canada’s game was that they were too cute. They tried to make the perfect play and tried to score the perfect goal instead of keeping their play simple. This cutesy play almost cost them the game, as Keith was pokechecked by Mads Hansen in the second period and was unable to catch Hansen as he scored a shorthanded goal for Norway.

Things didn’t look good for Canada in the third period as they were called for 5 penalties that sent the Norwegians to the power play for 7 minutes and 55 seconds straight. It was the first time all game that Norway showed any dominance in the Canadian zone and they had a number of chances, but Canada killed off every single penalty.

With less than four minutes left in the game, it was Rick Nash that saved the day when he drove down the left wing with a Norwegian player on his back, cut in front of Grotnes and tucked the puck into the corner of the net.

As Swiss coach Ralph Krueger said last week, his team may lack NHL offense, but they certainly have NHL defense. That may be a reason why the Swiss cruised to a 3-0-0-0 record in the preliminary round, but they faced a tough Czech team yesterday that handed the Swiss their first loss of the tournament.

The Swiss started the game well, giving the Czechs little room to shoot or pass the puck. It was only at the very end of the first period that the Czechs got on the board when a Swiss turnover in the neutral zone led to a goal by Martin Erat.

Martin Gerber kept his team in the game for much of the second period as well, stopping a number of shots, but let in 3 goals in the last 5 minutes and 16 seconds (Kaberle, Elias, Fleischmann).

Jiri Novotny registered the last goal late in the third period and the Czechs finished the game with a 33-12 shot advantage over the Swiss.

The US came out on top in this game, but the Germans gave them a run for their money.

The Americans started the game on a high note, with Parise scoring just 26 seconds into the opening frame. O’Sullivan and Wisniewski also scored for the US in the first period before the German coach called a timeout to settle down his team after they allowed 3 goals on just 5 shots.

Germany came back to score two goals on four shots in the first period. Michael Hackert’s wraparound goal was scored when the puck bounced off of O’Sullivan (who was covering the open side of the net because Anderson was out of position) and into the net. Christopher Schmidt also scored with a one-timer.

In the second period, Jason Pominville scored while on a 5-on-3 advantage, but Germany replied with a goal by Florian Busch. Michael Bakos tied the game early in the third period with a slap shot from the point.

After giving up 4 goals on just 10 shots, coach Tortorella replaced Anderson with Robert Esche.

Parise scored the game-winner later in the third period while Christoph Schubert was in the box for a cross checking penalty. Dustin Brown added the empty netter to give the Americans a 6-4 edge over the Germans.