Early in the tournament, it looked like Magnus Hellberg was going to be the number one goaltender for Sweden, with the Canucks’ Anders Nilsson settling in as the backup. Hellberg started the first two games of the tournament and took on tougher teams like the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while Nilsson got easier starts against France and Austria.
In the most crucial game of the preliminary round, however, Sweden head coach Rikard Gronborg turned to Nilsson. The winner between Sweden and Russia would finish atop Group A and face Latvia in the quarterfinals; the loser would finish second and face a dangerous Canadian team led by Connor McDavid.
Nilsson rewarded his coach’s confidence with a superb performance, shutting the door on Russia and completing Sweden’s undefeated preliminary round.
It didn’t start out well for Nilsson and Sweden, however. It will come as no surprise to Canucks fans that Nilsson gave up a goal in the first five minutes, but it was hard to blame him. Sweden got into early penalty trouble, with Rickard Rakell heading to the box 30 seconds in for boarding after an ugly hit from behind. To make matters worse, Adam Larsson got tagged with a double-minor for high-sticking while on the penalty kill.
While Russia didn’t score on the two-man advantage, they kept the puck in and scored not long after while still on the power play. Nikita Gusev threaded a pass under John Klingberg’s leg from behind the net and Kirill Kaprisov cashed in from in front, giving Nilsson little chance to make the stop.
That was it for Russia, however, as Nilsson didn’t allow a goal for the rest of the game. After Sweden scored two goals in the second period, Nilsson held onto the one-goal lead with 13 saves in the third period.
To top it off, Nilsson made a savvy play with Russia’s net empty, catching a dump-in and dropping it onto the stick of Mattias Ekholm. That kept the play alive and Ekholm sent the puck the length of the ice into the empty net, giving Nilsson an assist to go with his 30 saves.
Anders Nilsson assisterar Mattias Ekholm till 3-1. #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/W9yPKXT9qa
— Anton Johansson (@antonj85) May 15, 2018
Nilsson now has a .951 save percentage, second highest in the tournament behind Finland goaltender Harri Sateri. It’s not the first time he’s performed like this in the World Hockey Championships: he was outstanding in the 2013-14 tournament, posting a .938 save percentage en route to a bronze medal.
Now, however, is when the tournament really begins for gold-medal favourites like Sweden. While the preliminary round is important, particularly to ensure that they get an easier matchup, a berth in the quarterfinals was all-but ensured from puck drop in the first game. Now it’s about getting into the medal round.
While Latvia is an easier opponent than Canada, they also represent the biggest wild card of the tournament. Between Elvis Merzlikins and Kristers Gudlevskis, Latvia has two goaltenders capable of putting in an all-world performance and stealing a game. They took both USA and Canada to overtime, so Sweden cannot take them too lightly.
Since Nilsson started the last two games of the preliminary round against Switzerland and Russia, he’ll presumably get the start against Latvia.
Elsewhere at the World Hockey Championships…
Bo Horvat and Team Canada finished off the preliminary round with a resounding win over a German team that disappointed after winning silver at the Olympics. Canada out-shot Germany 30-to-12, notably holding Leon Draisaitl to zero shots on goal.
Horvat played 10:45 in the win, with one shot on goal. He finished the preliminary round with 5 points in 7 games.
Thanks to an overtime loss to USA and a regulation loss to Finland, Canada finished third in Group B and will face a tough Russian team led by Pavel Datsyuk in the quarterfinals. They’re biggest question is goaltending. Darcy Kuemper will likely be the starter for the rest of the tournament, but his .879 save percentage in the preliminary round does not inspire confidence.
