The final game of the World Junior Championship’s round robin play was consequential: Sweden had to beat Germany to finish second in Group B, which would afford them the opportunity of battling Latvia in Wednesday’s Quarterfinal.
If the Swedes lost, they would actually finish below Germany in the standings, and face Finland in the Quarterfinal.
For the Red Wings’ prospects participating in the game–Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder (Simon Edvinsson was OUT for the game)–Monday night’s game also represented an opportunity to rebound from Sunday night’s 3-2 loss to Team USA, and to build momentum in terms of both team and individual play.
Sweden won the game 4-2, with Niederbach earning an assist on the 4-1 goal for Sweden, but it wasn’t as easy as you might think. The Germans took a 1-0 lead 4:00 into the 1st period, and until the Swedes both tied the game 1:52 later, and earned a lead at 12:29…It felt like Germany was going to upset the lackadaisical Swedes.
That’s not what happened, however, and while the Swedes’ level of attention to detail was a bit ugly at times, the Germans couldn’t beat back-up goaltender Calle Clang again until Luca Munzenberger got a BIZARRE goal with 7.1 seconds remaining in regulation, so Sweden punched its ticket to a match-up with Latvia.
In terms of Red Wings prospects playing in the game…
Theodor Niederbach: Niederbach centered Sweden’s second line, with Oskar Olausson and Daniel Torgersson on his wings. Niederbach actually played very well, earning an assist and a -1 with 2 shots in 18:03 played.
He really was used as a second-line center, a power play net-front man and faceoff specialist, and a penalty-killer, so the strong-skating forward got a lot of ice time in key situations. While the 4-1 goal wasn’t huge, Niederbach made a gorgeous play to earn the first assist on Daniel Ljungman’s goal, and he was sharp and speedy throughout.
William Wallinder: Wallinder was paired with Ludwig Jansson on defense.
Wallinder was more of a work in progress: he finished at -1 with 1 shot in 15:27. There were long stretches of time where the strong-skating, shut-down defenseman actually stepped up in the absence of Edvinsson, and played a more offensively-inclined role, sending good outlet passes out of his zone and sending some hard shots in on the German goaltenders…
But he also got over-powered in front of his own goaltender for a couple of German chances, and in front of the net, it was evident that he still needs to work on his upper-body strength–and sometimes his consistency.
The biggest shock was that the Swedish lineup came out at 9:10 PM EDT, as Simon Edvinsson was not one of the 7 defensemen listed.
As I addressed in an earlier post, Edvinsson played 22:46 in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Americans, and HockeySverige’s Rasmus Kagstrom Tweeted that it was precautionary; TSN’s Bob McKenzie said that Edvinsson was either banged-up or suffered from food poisoning.
In terms of the game’s narrative…
In the 1st period…
The Swedes also started goaltender Calle Clang after Jesper Wallstedt took Sunday’s loss so very personally, so that was another change.
Sweden won the opening faceoff and got a shot only 18 seconds in–off a Niederbach faceoff win in which Emil Andrae chipped a shot through traffic.
Quapp then jumped up to stop a Lekkerimaki shot a minute and two seconds into the 1st;
All of that being said, despite the slightly slower start, the Germans looked confident and crisp.
Wallinder’s first shift was simple and efficient, with he and his defensive partner, Torgersson, parrying a German rush.
On his second shift, Wallinder did a nice job of working the puck out of his zone while playing on the right side, and he and Niederbach worked together in the offensive zone…
But coming back, Wallinder’s defensive partner, Anton Olsson, got deked around by Bennet Rossmy, and Rossmy chipped a shot in on Grans that was just plain old missed and went in off the goalpost.
Bennet Rossmy opens up scoring for Germany! #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/eImFY0Yr1a— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 16, 2022
😮 Bennet Rossmy with a nifty move scores just 4min into the 1st to put @deb_teams on the board!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/jIoi1jTo1j— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 16, 2022
Germany led 1-0 at 4:00 from Dziambor and Schweiger.
Shortly thereafter, Germany took a penalty for tripping at 5:29 as Leonhardt tripped a Swede…
Niederbach started the power play, worked very hard to help tip a shot in tight, and Sweden did indeed tie the game as Oskar Olausson sent a point shot through Quapp at 5:52 on the power play.
Oskar Olausson ties it up on the power play! #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/jcUVZUwPGp— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 16, 2022
Powerplay goal! @Trekronorse‘s Oskar Olausson evens it up 1-1#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/vFb1zgRD6C— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 16, 2022
Niederbach helped facilitate the play, but Lekkerimaki and Andrae got assists.
I guess what I would say is that Niederbach looked particularly steady…
But teammate Daniel Torgersson took a dumb tripping penalty at 6:29, and the Swedes went back to the PK.
They killed it, pretty convincingly…
And when Wallinder was put in a headlock in his own zone, he managed to battle his way out of it without losing his helmet, or getting burned. He just skated away from the tussle, which obviously was not penalized.
That was okay, because Wallinder cross-checked a German who tried to screen Clang, and that wasn’t called, either.
Niederbach’s skating and spin-o-rama in the defensive zone looked good, and he was able to get off on a line change…
It’s funny. Two years ago, Niederbach was at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, a kid with no confidence and this really long stick, who couldn’t finish a pass. In the first game of this year’s WJC, he took 3 penalties, including a 5-minute major. Now he’s confident, calm, goes to the front of the net, wins draws, skates great, makes passes, is just smart. He’s really progressed over a short period of time.
Anyway, the Swedes scored a 2-1 goal as Daniel Ljungman took the rebound of a point shot and tipped it down and into the net past Quapp, very close to the crossbar, at 12:29.
Daniel Ljungman with the perfect hand-eye coordination bats the puck in and Sweden takes a 2-1 lead! #WorldJuniors
🔗: https://t.co/5U6tdx6LaKpic.twitter.com/Op02tVwysN— Elite Prospects (@eliteprospects) August 16, 2022
Oskar Olausson ties it up on the power play! #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/jcUVZUwPGp— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 16, 2022
The refs reviewed it for a high stick, and it counted. Anton Olsson got the assist on the point shot and Fabian Lysell got the second assist.
Even better for Sweden, Emil Andrae picked Oskar Magnusson on the break, and he raced in and chipped a puck through Quapp to make it 3-1 at 13:56.
Sweden with 2 goals in under 2 minutes! #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/AnwiRJJkqS— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 16, 2022
Andrae and Grans got the assists.
As the period progressed, the Swedes got more and more confident, and while the Germans did not back down, the Swedes really worked their point shots and the Germans gave them the points, so the Swedes were all too happy to generate possession and control and either shoot off the rush or pump pucks back to the point and blast Quapp.
Again, Niederbach just displayed a level of snarl that I’ve never seen, grinding down German defenders on the forecheck (and yes, Niederbach played similarly vs. the Americans) and battling his ass off to get to pucks and win faceoffs.
Great to see.
Speaking of which, Niederbach shanked a shot wide of an open net after Torgersson tripped Quapp, so Torgersson sat and the Germans headed to the power play at 18:17.
Bizarrely, the Germans showed NO URGENCY on the power play, and the Swedes were able to parry the German chances and saunter into the 1st period having scored 3 straight goals.
There was some weird speculation by TSN’s Gord Miller and Mike Johnson about Edvinsson, too! Miller and Johnson claimed that Swedish coach Tomas Monten said that Edvinsson might be out till the final on Saturday, and they wondered whether he’d suffered some sort of injury that would require five days of rehabilitation. That’s broadcaster speculation, but who knows!
In the 2nd period…
The Swedes began on the PK for 17 seconds, but they won the opening faceoff (Niederbach won it) and Niederbach circled in the German zone until the defensemen ran out of time.
Ultimately, Sweden iced the puck at the 30-second mark, and so Niederbach lost a draw and Proska got a shot in on Clang, but it was easily stopped, and the Swedes changed lines and emerged unscathed.
Wallinder got a good shot off on Quapp from the left point (not his usual position) as well…
Then Lekkerimaki got high-sticked, but there was no call, and it seemed like both the refs and the Germans want to get this one over with.
In perhaps his worst shift of the game, Wallinder got pressured and turned the puck over to a German who chipped a sneaky shot in on Clang some 4:30 into the 2nd, but Clang stuck his glove out and made a stop.
This popped up on Twitter while Wallinder ripped a smart shot on the net on his next shift, with Theodor Niederbach and Torgersson lurking around the net.
Wallinder did in fact display some puck-moving aplomb and some good shot selections, and Niederbach was just buzzing.
Anyway:
Rumored schedule for #WorldJuniors quarterfinals on Wednesday…
9am – Finland v SWE/GER
1230p – SWE/GER v Latvia
4p – Canada v Swiss
730p – USA v Czechia— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) August 16, 2022
In all honesty, the only problem in the 2nd was the Swedish defense’s tendency to turn over pucks. Emil Andrae, steady otherwise, made a bad turnover, and Clang had to make a stellar leg stop to keep it from becoming 3-2…
As the Swedish urgency seemed to fade.
Frankly, as the 9-minute mark passed, Germany had lulled Sweden to sleep, and while Quapp had to make a big stop on Ljungman by lunging back toward the front of the net, by 9:40 of the 2nd, it was pretty even!
Slowly but surely, the Germans started to get a couple of offensive chances, if only here and there, and 10:40 into the 2nd, the Swedes were too comfortable playing in the neutral zone and in their own zone as Germany began to check hard.
Dangerous.
As you might expect, Calle Clang had to make TWO spectacular stops on Rossmy to keep it 3-1 at 11:30 of the 2nd.
Wallinder continued to generate good scoring chances when he was on the ice–stepping up in Edvinsson’s absence.
All of that being said, some 15:00 into the 2nd, the Germans really, really were hounding the Swedes in their own zone, and they didn’t seem to mind.
Somehow, I was not surprised when Niederbach, Olausson and Torgersson were the ones who generated a good, hard, physical forecheck and a cycle in the Germans’ zone late in the 2nd period. The German defenseman shoveled the puck away, but it was an “almost.”
Wallinder was doing a better job of both gapping up and not getting sucked into corner battles when he was the last man in front of his own net, too.
Niederbach was also doing a great job of going to the front of the net and staying there as a center/wing. He really likes to lurk at the periphery of the crease.
The 2nd period ended with Sweden up 3-1, but the Germans still felt dangerous, and the Swedes did NOT seem dominant.
In the 3rd period…
Oddly enough, Lukas Lunemann was swapped out for Nikita Quapp in goal, giving Sweden the opportunity to pounce upon a World Junior Championship rookie…
That being said, Lunemann made his first stop 1 minute into the 3rd period, and the Germans continued to battle hard against the Swedish offense.
Niederbach had a solid shift in all three zones while working with his linemates, and Niederbach was strong in terms of getting his stick in passing lanes to forecheck and attempt to generate turnovers.
When he left the ice, the Germans got a good shot off by Rossmy at 2:10, but Clang made a big stop;
The Germans got away with a penalty for tripping soon after;
Lekkerimaki was all but tackled, sans call, on a breakaway;
Isak Rosen got whacked into the bench, no call;
Long story long, the refs had a bus to catch.
When Niederbach got back onto the ice, he flubbed a deke-and-dangle move, but came back to help his defense cover the front of the net, and then he chipped the puck out blindly, the Germans took control, but the Swedes cleared…
Bizarrely, the German captain Munzenberger got called for “interference” when he slew-footed Sjodin at 5:08, but that gave Sweden a power play.
Again, Niederbach played the faceoff man/down low man on the power play, and Lekkerimaki and Niederbach worked a down-low pass to Ljungman, who ripped a shot through Lunemann at 5:46.
🇸🇪 Powerplay goal! @Trekronorse extends their lead to 4-1 over @deb_teams #WorldJuniors #SWEGER pic.twitter.com/ovomeK8pru— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 16, 2022
It was 4-1 Sweden.
But then Sjoberg took a penalty for tripping with 13:42 remaining in regulation/6:18 gone, and the Germans headed to the power play.
Niederbach was part of the PK unit, and he did well on his shift;
Wallinder had a shift on the PK as well, and he looked mobile and smart as the Germans worked the puck around the perimeter, but he did give too much time and space to Josef Eham at the side of the net, and Eham jammed a puck into Clang, who was tested.
Some bugs to work out, yet.
Sweden killed the penalty, however, and 11:42 remained.
The Swedes honestly were playing good enough to win–if only barely–and they were getting a little lucky in terms of the breaks that they were getting.
Then Leo Loof took a penalty for interference on what really looked like a German dive at 10:24, and the Germans got an opportunity to play some power play time.
Rossmy got a really good back-door chance, and the Germans began to crank up their offensive zone pressure, but the Swedes played just well enough to not surrender a goal, and the Swedes killed the penalty.
With 6:06 remaining, Eham of Germany backed right into Clang, and the play was whistled down…
For a crease violation. Which is not a penalty in IIHF hockey.
Odd.
Niederbach’s puck pursuit continued to impress, as did his bent-over skating stride.
With 4:44 remaining, we hit our final TV timeout(?) and Wallinder was pretty invisible, which is okay for him.
I did notice Wallinder doing a good job of cycling the puck out of danger in the neutral zone.
With 3:30 remaining, the Germans did get a couple of good chances off in the slot, with Wallinder on the ice, and that was noticeable, too.
It was kind of funny to watch the Germans try to spin Niederbach out in the offensive zone as he forechecked down low, disrupting the German cycle…
He came back into his defensive zone to use his stick as a back-checking implement, too.
Bizarrely, Germany made it 4-2 on a shot by Munzenberger that went off Emil Andrae’s stick. It bounced up in the air, rolled down behind Calle Clang, and it was 4-2 with 7.1 seconds remaining in the 3rd period.
The goal was reviewed in case Leionhardt tipped it in, but the goal stood and that gave Munzenberger a rare marker.
🇸🇪 @Trekronorse takes a commanding 4-2 win over @deb_teams and will face @lhf_lv in the quarter-finals. #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/1WwPRVCs4N— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 16, 2022
FINAL | Sweden 🇸🇪 4, Germany 🇩🇪 2
📊 https://t.co/739eCl1Kja#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/AdMNauL8SD— #WorldJuniors (@WorldJuniors) August 16, 2022
Juniorkronorna avslutar gruppspelet på bästa sätt genom att slå Tyskland med 4-2. Målskyttar: Daniel Ljungman 2, Oskar Olausson och Oskar Magnusson. Calle Clang med 20 räddningar.
Nu väntar kvartsfinal mot Lettland.
Tack för stödet 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/VfTp9bSK0W— Tre Kronor (@Trekronorse) August 16, 2022
QF schedule for Wednesday per TSN:
Finland vs. Germany 10 a.m. MT
Sweden vs. Latvia 1:30 p.m. MT
Canada vs. Switzerland 5 p.m. MT
USA vs. Czechia at 8:30 p.m. MT— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) August 16, 2022
Leider hat es am Ende gegen 🇸🇪 nicht für den Sieg gereicht, dennoch schließen unsere U20-Jungs 👦🏼🇩🇪 die Gruppenphase der diesjährigen IIHF-World-Junior-Championship auf einem guten 3. Platz ab 💪🏻 Im Viertelfinale wartet am Mittwoch nunmehr das Team aus 🇫🇮 auf unsere DEB-Auswahl! pic.twitter.com/HWcp0JfnJE— Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (@deb_teams) August 16, 2022
