William Nylander picked up five points, Alexander Wennberg collected three on his tournament debut and line-mate Patric Hornqvist scored twice as Sweden handed out a second successive hammering in Bratislava. Following Sunday’s 8-0 drubbing of Italy, the Tre Kronor enjoyed another eight-goal margin against Norway. The 9-1 scoreline sees Rikard Groenborg's men improve to two wins from three games.

Nylander had a goal and four helpers, moving him to eight points for the tournament and placing him top of the scorers in Group B. Wennberg added two goals and one assist as the Swedes proved irresistible in the first two periods.

Hornqvist was excited by Nylander's performance as the spark that ignited Sweden's top line. "William creates so much space for himself," he said. "And then when he gets separation, he's so fast on his skates. He's always taking it to the net and he always has his head up. So you just have to make sure he gets that room and have your stick on the ice."

After a challenging season in the NHL, the Swede is also enjoying his hockey with the national team. "I feel really good. I think our line's been really good. We had the puck a lot in their end and I tried to create some space around their net and find some rebounds and tips. It's been going in for me right now."
Sweden is not a happy opponent for the winless Norwegians. The Tre Kronor are unbeaten in their last five meetings with their neighbour and have lost just once in World Championship play in this century. However, there was some grounds for hope: the only Norwegian victory over Sweden in that time came in 2011, the last occasion the championship came to Slovakia.

That game, played in Kosice, saw the Swedes grab three goals in the first period but Norway rallied to tie it at 4-4 before winning in a shoot-out. This time, Sweden again scored three in the opening stanza with Nylander’s line proving too hot to handle in the opening exchanges.

It took a mere 39 seconds to open the scoring. Nylander won an attacking face-off, Wennberg moved the puck to the doorstep and waited for Henrik Haukeland to open the 5-hole before slotting home from close range.

Nylander’s next contribution came in the seventh minute when he fed Oliver Ekman-Larsson for a shot from the top of the circle. Hornqvist was waiting in front of Haukeland’s net and knocked the puck down for his fourth goal in three games here in Bratislava.

And Nylander got on the scoresheet himself late in the frame as Wennberg and Hornqvist generated great traffic in front of Haukeland. The 2017 World Champion cut in from the left boards and was able to squeeze a shot through that crowd scene. The Norwegian bench challenged the call but even though Hornqvist found himself on the paintwork, he was propelled into the danger zone by Norwegian defenceman Jonas Holos and the goal stood.

Although Sweden was dominant, the first period was not entirely one-way traffic. A string of Swedish penalties midway through the action kept the yellow peril away from the Norwegian net for a time, even though Petter Thoresen’s team had a hard time generating much of a threat for Jacob Markstrom as the Canucks goalie deputized for Henrik Lundqvist.

Norway’s 2011 victory owed much to a second period turnaround inspired by goals from Morten Ask and Marius Holtet. However, Sweden’s 2019 edition went out to turn the screws on the opposition. Adrian Kempe showed some fine stick-handling to tie up Mattias Norstebo on his way to Sweden’s fourth. Ekman-Larsson’s shot set up a fifth in the 26th minute as Hornqvist tipped it into the net. Haukeland got a much-needed break from action as he made way for Henrik Holm. The Stavanger Oilers man made his World Championship debut off the bench in the 2-7 loss to the Czechs.

Norway’s first-choice goalie had endured a tough time in his tournament so far, allowing 15 goals in a little over six periods of action – and things didn’t start much better for Holm as he was left utterly exposed by his defence within seconds of taking to the ice. Anton Lander, scorer of a hat-trick 24 hours earlier, raced onto a pass from Erik Gustaffson and unselfishly dropped a pass for Mario Kempe to add a sixth. After that big win over Italy, Lander warned that Sweden was far from satisfied yet and this performance was turning into another romp for the defending champion.

Goal number seven duly arrived courtesy of a video review, with Wennberg’s effort making it over the line despite Holm grabbing it in his glove beneath the crossbar. Nylander’s assist took both players to four points for the game. Then Norway began to fashion a few chances, to the encouragement of the neutrals in the crowd. Sondre Olden got clean through on Markstrom but could only shoot into the pads, Mathis Olimb forced a good save out of the Swedish goalie. For a time there was a contest on the ice, if no longer on the scoreboard. Norway even caught a break from a video review when a Mario Kempe effort was whistled off for goalie interference. However, Sweden’s first power play was not long in coming and the outcome was inevitable: an eighth goal, this time from Loui Eriksson at the back door. The middle frame brought five unanswered Swedish goals with the Tre Kronor firing in 22 shots at the Norwegian net in the space of 20 minutes.

For Ekman-Larsson, the key was maintaining the intensity of the Swedish game until the job was done. "We talked about coming out hard, coming out and playing our game," he said. "I thought we did that the first two periods. Then we slowed down a little bit in the third. But at the same time, the game was over after the second."

The defenceman also paid tribute to Wennberg's impressive start. "It didn't take him long!" he joked. "I think that took like five seconds or so. So it was nice for him to get right into it. He was playing good. He's a smart player. He's a two-way player, and he's going to help us a lot."

In the final frame the tempo dropped. With the outcome beyond doubt this was a question of whether Norway could salvage some pride. With eight minutes left, it did. Matthias Trettenes fired in a point shot through traffic to beat Markstrom at last and earn his team a sporting cheer from almost all corners of the Ondrej Nepela Arena. But Sweden would have the final word and Nylander fed Oskar Lindblom to make it 9-1 in the 58th minute.

For Norstebo, though, this was an evening to forget. "You're meeting a world-class team here, and even though they have better players than us, it's kind of embarrassing the way we came out today, I think, with the attitude and everything," he said. "They really played around all game, and I think we've got to be tougher and better in every aspect of the game."
 

Norway slips to three losses from three games but can take comfort from the fact that its toughest tasks in the group phase – games against the ‘big three’ of Russia, Sweden and the Czechs – are over. For Sweden, meanwhile, two big wins represent a riposte to critics of the team after its opening loss to the Czech Republic.