[size=30]Nylander lifts Sweden over winless Finland[/size]
The Canadian Press
Lias Andersson Kristoffer Gunnarsson, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Sweden and its star forward Alexander Nylander keep rolling along at the world junior hockey championship.
The younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Williams Nylander had two goals and an assist as Sweden (3-0-0) defeated Finland 3-1 on Thursday night and pushed the defending champion Finns (0-3-0) to the brink of elimination from medal contention in the 10-team tournament.
The Swedes, who were shut out of the medals at the last two world juniors, avenged a loss to Finland in the semifinals of last year's tournament, not to mention its defeat on home ice in the 2014 final.
"Of course, we had revenge from last year when we didn't come home with a medal, so this year we're really focusing on winning a medal and hopefully it's gold," said Nylander, whose four goals and three assists in the first three games left him one point behind Russia's Kirill Kaprizov for the tournament scoring lead.
"Our team's getting better every game."
Although they have won 39 consecutive group stage games since 2007, Sweden is seeking its first world junior gold since 2012 in Calgary and Edmonton. With eight returning players led by Nylander, drafted eighth overall by Buffalo in June, and linemate Joel Eriksson Ek, who started this season with Minnesota, they are among the gold medal favourites and have looked impressive so far.
A crowd of 9,062, the largest yet for a game in the Canada group playing at Bell Centre that does not include Canada, saw a fast-paced game in which Finland outshot Sweden 29-20 but coud only get one puck past goaltender Felix Sandstrom.
Finland, a shadow of last year's squad without the top line of Patrik Laine, Sebastian Aho and Jesse Pulujarvi, all now in the NHL, threw everything it had at Sweden in a desperate bid to stay in the hunt after opening the tournament with surprise losses to the Czech Republic and Denmark.
The Finns got the lead when Aapeli Rasanen scored in the first period, but a failure to score during a two-man advantage in the second saw momentum turn in Sweden's favour.
"It was a big turning point for us to handle that and score right after it," said Sandstrom.
Finland must now hope that Denmark (1-1-1) beats Switzerland, which has two points, on Friday. Then Finland would have to beat the Swiss on Saturday to avoid the ignominy of dropping into a relegation playoff with the fifth-place team in the other group.
"The good thing is Denmark has played so well here," said Finland captain Olli Juolevi. "They've surprised everyone.
"This is not the way we wanted it to go, but there's nothing we can do now."
Lias Andersson also scored for Sweden, which ends preliminary round play Saturday against the Czech Republic (1-0-2).
Finland's inexperience and sometimes disjointed play has dogged them thus far, even if they look to be getting better with each game.
"We played our best game today," said Juolevi. "It was not an easy couple of days for us and, as the captain, I'm proud of my teammates.
"We came up. It's not easy to come back after those kinds of losses."
It was an eventful outing for Rasmus Dahlin, the 16-year-old Swedish defenceman pegged as a possible first overall NHL draft pick in 2018. He barely played in the first period, but when he got on, he lost the puck to Otto Koivula and tripped the Finnish forward. Rasanen scored on the ensuing power play at 16:35 as he fired in Eeli Tolvanen's feed from the slot.
Dahlin was sent to the box again for interference after a collision with Urho Vaakanainen 8:15 into the second frame and, six seconds later, Carl Grundstrom was called for shooting the puck over the glass.
But Sandstrom held off the two-man advantage and Andersson tied it at 12:16 on a low wrist shot from the high slot on a perfect pass from Nylander.
Sweden went ahead 1:24 into the third on a five-pass sequence on a rush through the Finland defence, with Nylander finishing into an open side on a cross-ice feed from Eriksson Ek.
He added an empty-net goal at the 19:00 mark.
The Canadian Press
Lias Andersson Kristoffer Gunnarsson, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Sweden and its star forward Alexander Nylander keep rolling along at the world junior hockey championship.
The younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Williams Nylander had two goals and an assist as Sweden (3-0-0) defeated Finland 3-1 on Thursday night and pushed the defending champion Finns (0-3-0) to the brink of elimination from medal contention in the 10-team tournament.
The Swedes, who were shut out of the medals at the last two world juniors, avenged a loss to Finland in the semifinals of last year's tournament, not to mention its defeat on home ice in the 2014 final.
"Of course, we had revenge from last year when we didn't come home with a medal, so this year we're really focusing on winning a medal and hopefully it's gold," said Nylander, whose four goals and three assists in the first three games left him one point behind Russia's Kirill Kaprizov for the tournament scoring lead.
"Our team's getting better every game."
Although they have won 39 consecutive group stage games since 2007, Sweden is seeking its first world junior gold since 2012 in Calgary and Edmonton. With eight returning players led by Nylander, drafted eighth overall by Buffalo in June, and linemate Joel Eriksson Ek, who started this season with Minnesota, they are among the gold medal favourites and have looked impressive so far.
A crowd of 9,062, the largest yet for a game in the Canada group playing at Bell Centre that does not include Canada, saw a fast-paced game in which Finland outshot Sweden 29-20 but coud only get one puck past goaltender Felix Sandstrom.
Finland, a shadow of last year's squad without the top line of Patrik Laine, Sebastian Aho and Jesse Pulujarvi, all now in the NHL, threw everything it had at Sweden in a desperate bid to stay in the hunt after opening the tournament with surprise losses to the Czech Republic and Denmark.
The Finns got the lead when Aapeli Rasanen scored in the first period, but a failure to score during a two-man advantage in the second saw momentum turn in Sweden's favour.
"It was a big turning point for us to handle that and score right after it," said Sandstrom.
Finland must now hope that Denmark (1-1-1) beats Switzerland, which has two points, on Friday. Then Finland would have to beat the Swiss on Saturday to avoid the ignominy of dropping into a relegation playoff with the fifth-place team in the other group.
"The good thing is Denmark has played so well here," said Finland captain Olli Juolevi. "They've surprised everyone.
"This is not the way we wanted it to go, but there's nothing we can do now."
Lias Andersson also scored for Sweden, which ends preliminary round play Saturday against the Czech Republic (1-0-2).
Finland's inexperience and sometimes disjointed play has dogged them thus far, even if they look to be getting better with each game.
"We played our best game today," said Juolevi. "It was not an easy couple of days for us and, as the captain, I'm proud of my teammates.
"We came up. It's not easy to come back after those kinds of losses."
It was an eventful outing for Rasmus Dahlin, the 16-year-old Swedish defenceman pegged as a possible first overall NHL draft pick in 2018. He barely played in the first period, but when he got on, he lost the puck to Otto Koivula and tripped the Finnish forward. Rasanen scored on the ensuing power play at 16:35 as he fired in Eeli Tolvanen's feed from the slot.
Dahlin was sent to the box again for interference after a collision with Urho Vaakanainen 8:15 into the second frame and, six seconds later, Carl Grundstrom was called for shooting the puck over the glass.
But Sandstrom held off the two-man advantage and Andersson tied it at 12:16 on a low wrist shot from the high slot on a perfect pass from Nylander.
Sweden went ahead 1:24 into the third on a five-pass sequence on a rush through the Finland defence, with Nylander finishing into an open side on a cross-ice feed from Eriksson Ek.
He added an empty-net goal at the 19:00 mark.
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