Sweden crushes Austria to open World Junior Championship

After ending pre-tournament play with a disappointing loss to Switzerland, Sweden kicked off the main tournament off with a massive 11-0 win over Austria.

Sweden has won all four meetings between the two teams, including 6-0 at the summer tournament. Austria hasn’t scored against Sweden since the first meeting between the two nations, a 7-3 loss at the 2010 tournament.

The Austrians got some good goaltending out of Thomas Pfarrmaier in the first, who made a highlight blocker save on Filip Bystedt early. But at 13:17, Isak Rosen scored on a 2-on-1 opportunity where he alluded to making a pass before beating Pfarrmaier for the 1-0 goal. Four minutes later, Rosen set up Bystedt for an opportunity he wouldn’t miss, giving Sweden a 2-0 lead in the first.

From there, the much stronger Swedes took full control. The team had six goals on just _ in the second, with Rosen scoring his second of the night and third point of the game just 48 seconds in.

Two minutes later, Simon Robertsson scored from an Elias Pettersson feed, getting the puck past traffic. Milton Oscarson scored a shorthanded goal five minutes after that before Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Liam Ohgren and Calle Odelius added goals to make it 8-0.

Odelius scored early in the third before Bystedt scored another to make it 10-0. Fourth-liner Oscar Pettersson made it 11-0 with around seven minutes left to give Sweden more goals than Austria had shots, finishing it up at 11-0.