Johansson backstops Sweden to victory; Finns and Latvians lose on home ice

Gagarin Cup winner Lars Johansson, now 35, set an unlikely record for Sweden in a 1-0 victory over Germany at the start of the 2023 IIHF World Championship. This was his first game in a World Championship for the Tre Kronor, and at 35 years, 305 days, the former CSKA man is the oldest Swedish goalie to make a debut in this competition.

He marked the occasion in style, making 19 stops to frustrate a dogged German team that matched its more illustrious opponent for long periods.

The only goal came from Oscar Lindberg on a power play orchestrated by Andre Petersson. The 31-year-old, who played two seasons with Dynamo Moscow, paid tribute to Johansson’s performance. 

“He was great,” Lindberg said. “He's been great the whole season for us. He's very calm back there and talks a lot to us and helps us out. So it's huge to have a good goalie back there.”

Sweden’s success followed a disappointing opening game for Finland in Tampere. Teemu Hartikainen opened the scoring against the Americans, but the host nation and defending champion suffered a surprise 1-4 loss against a youthful team USA.

The Americans, with a raft of college players on this year’s team, responded to tie the scores in the middle stanza. Then, with Finland unusually lethargic despite an enthusiastic home crowd, the third period brought three unanswered goals for the U.S. to open events in Tampere by disappointing the tournament host.

Hartikainen’s goal followed a league-leading 28 tallies for Servette-Geneve in the Swiss National League this season. 

“It was a nice play on the power play,” he said. “I scored a lot of goals in Switzerland from there, so it was a good feeling to have.”

Across the Baltic in Latvia, the action started with a clash between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It ended 3-2 to the Czechs, with Roman Cervenka, previously of Avangard, SKA and Lev Prague, moving to 58 career points in World Championship play. That’s more than any other player active in this year’s competition. Swiss veteran Andres Ambuhl is next on the list with 56 points.

Lukas Sedlak, once of Traktor, marked his World Championship debut by scoring the other Czech goals, while Simon Hrubec, a Gagarin Cup-winning goalie with Avangard, fell victim to a curious incident that saw him make a save then inadvertently bat the puck into his own net for Slovakia’s second goal.

The evening game saw co-host nation Latvia take on Canada. Two goals in the first five minutes put last year’s runner-up in control of the game and it finished 6-0 to the Canadians. Defenseman Mackenzie Weegar led the way with a three-point game as Harijs Vitolins saw his team endure a rough start in Riga.

Main photo: Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru