US falls to Sweden 1-0 at world juniors

By foxsports
Published

HELSINKI (AP) Linus Soderstrom made 46 saves and Alexander Nylander scored and Sweden shut out the United States 1-0 on Monday in the world junior hockey championship.

Nylander scored on a second-period breakaway. He has a goal and four assists in the tournament to lead Sweden, which is 2-0 in Group A

The United States, which fell to 1-1 after beating Canada in its opener, couldn't score despite having eight power-play chances in the game.

''Guys followed our instructions, the only thing we couldn't do was find the net. We had plenty of opportunities, but give their goalie credit, he was sensational,'' Team USA coach Ron Wilson said.

''Our power play was successful, we were handling the puck well, and should have had four or five goals tonight. Sometimes you face a goalie with a hot hand.''

It was the first time the U.S. lost to Sweden in the world juniors since 1996, ending a 12-game winning streak.

Nylander plays in the Ontario Hockey League and is expected to be selected in the 2016 NHL draft. Soderstrom was a fourth-round pick of the New York Islanders in the 2014 draft.

''I got to make a lot of saves early on and got in the game. It was a fun game to play,'' Soderstrom said.

''It was important to get three points, we obviously want to win the group.''

Also on Monday, Mitch Marner and Dylan Strome each had a goal and an assist and Canada rolled past Denmark 6-1. Anthony Beauvillier, John Quenneville, Matt Barzal and Lawson Crouse also scored for Canada.

And Russia rallied from a 3-1 deficit to stun host Finland 6-4.

Russia scored four second-period goals in a span of 7:22. Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Svetlakov, Pavel Kraskovski, Vladislav Kamenev, Alexander Polunin, and Radel Fazleyev also scored for Russia. Yegor Korshkov had three assists, and Maxim Lazarev and Ivan Provorov each added two assists.

Aleksi Saarela scored twice, Patrik Laine had a goal and an assist, and Sebastian Aho also scored for Finland.

In another game on Monday, Dominik Lakatos and David Pastrnak scored and the Czech Republic blanked Slovakia 2-0.

The U.S. will face Switzerland on Wednesday and Denmark on Thursday.