International Hockey
World U17: Team Russia vs Team Sweden Game Story
Sweden took a tripping penalty late in the first period and early in the second Ivan Nikolishin was able to make them pay and try to get his team back into this match-up by making a great pass then driving to the net only to regain the puck and beat Sweden goaltender Felix Sandstrom. Less than five minutes later, Maxim Lazarev gets Russia right back in this match-up protecting the puck and going to the net making it 3-2. Russia had Sweden on their heels but once again Oskar Lindblom comes through as he made no mistake putting a wrister top shelf to regain the two goal lead. Just 57 seconds later Gustaf Franzen who already had an assist on the opening goal of the game, got his name on the board to make this game a convincing 5-2 lead. As it appeared Russia would enter the intermission down three goals as they did when they began the period, Eduard Nasybullin scored to help Russia go into the break down only 5-3.
In what would be an important period for Russia, they came out strong. Then, Yevgeni Svechnikov who has been pretty quiet through the tournament to this point made a great individual move then made no mistake trimming the lead to 5-4. Sweden was on their heels a little trying to preserve the lead, then with only 2:31 left in the game a bit of a controversial goal occurred as it appeared the puck hit a Team Sweden player on the bench, the play continued, and Oskar Lindblom showed tremendous hands in close to roof a backhander in the slot over Russian netminder Maxim Sidorov. Russia quickly took a penalty and Sweden put this game away as William Nylander Altelius made a great indididual play to beat the defender and make it a 7-4 score. This would be our final as Sweden finished a perfect round robin with 4 wins.
HockeyProspect.com 3 Stars of the Game
#23 – Oskar Lindblom – Team Sweden
Lindblom had an absolutely huge game for Sweden today and was one of the main reasons they came away with such a convincing victory. What does it for Oskar is his hands. He has some of the best hands we’ve seen from any player on any country in this match-up and all you have to do is see a clip of his second goal to know exactly what we mean. He controls the puck with casual effort but his skills are anything but casual. He uses this ability along with some good skating and power behind his shot to be an offensive force for Sweden. They will run into a tough Semi-Final opponent, no matter who they face and Lindblom showed tonight he could be one of the impact players en route to a possible Gold Medal.
#11 – Ivan Nikolishin – Team Russia
There has been a bit of a love/hate relationship for us with Nikolishin. He has great hands and skating combination and has certainly been one of the most exciting players to watch in this event. However he is very eager to try and sell or embellish potential penalty calls rather excessively, which has been very frustrating to watch. Nikolishin showed his toughness in the defensive zone in this game as he was ready and willing to block shots on a regular basis and covers the point well defensively. He forced turnovers in the neutral zone and moved the puck very well on the rush. Nikolishin scored a very nice goal in this match-up and his contributions at both ends of the ice made him one of the three stars.
#20 – William Nylander Altelius – Team Sweden
With William the question has never been one of talent. But rather his willingness to share the puck with his other teammates. After the first few shifts of the game, Nylander showed exactly how good his vision and playmaking is. He just sees things that very few other players in this tournament see out there and it allowed him to be a force for Sweden whenever they were in the offensive zone. Nylander has excellent skating ability and can fight off checks fairly well when controlling the puck in the offensive zone. Going into the Under 17 Challenge we knew Nylander well. But he hasn’t disappointed, if anything has got better and more complete as the event has progressed.