The Swedish national U-20 men's hockey team routed their Danish counterpart 8-0 in exhibition play on Dec. 20 at the Olds Sports Complex. The world juniors game was a tune-up match for the Under-20 International Ice Hockey Federation men's championships that started yesterday in Edmonton and Calgary and run through to Jan. 5.
More than 1,000 people packed the stands at the Sportsplex, watching the Swedes jump out to a 4-0 lead after one period. The Swedes then added two more goals in the second and two more in the third to seal the victory.
Goaltender Anton Forsberg, a 19-year-old who is currently undrafted by an NHL team, stopped all 23 shots he faced. Sweden fired 44 shots on net.
Forsberg, who plays for Modo, said despite what he considered a slow start against Denmark in the first period in which the Swedes gave up several two-on-one chances, the team tightened up defensively in the second, keeping most of Denmark's shots to the outside, where Forsberg, in his first world junior championship, was able to easily block them.
“We started not so good but after a while we came into the game and played very good, didn't give up so many bad shots. It was easy for me to play,” he said.
While Sweden was scheduled to play one more pre-tournament game against Canada in Edmonton on Friday, Forsberg was confident that if the team played as well as it did in the last two periods against Denmark, it would beat Team Canada.
“I think our chances are really good and we can go all the way and take the gold medal if we play our own game, good defence,” he said.
Johan Sundstrom, who scored one goal against Denmark, said the game was a good start to build on for the matchup against Canada and the tournament in general.
“We know (Canada) is going to come much harder than Denmark and we're prepared for that too. It was a good first game to get the game plan right,” he said.
While Sundstrom said it was good to score a goal, he was more pleased by the team's play.
“I think this team is doing really well, ” he said.
"We started not so good but after a while we came into the game and played very good, didn't give up so many bad shots."Anton Forsberg, goaltender, Swedish U-20 national hockey team
