IIHF – Sweden overpowers Slovakia

So far, so good for Sweden. Hilda Svensson had a four-point game and Anna Brenkle scored the third-period winner as Sweden beat Slovakia 6-3 at the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship on Monday.

Brenkle, a 17-year-old Brynas IF forward, snared a loose puck on the rush and golfed it high into the net with 8:52 left.

Rounding out Group B action, the unbeaten Swedes will face the U.S. on Wednesday as they vie to nail down first place. Slovakia, stil seeking its first win, faces host Switzerland that day.
 

Hilda Svensson, who impressively led Sweden with 11 points at the 2023 Women’s Worlds in Brampton, Ontario, totalled two goals and two assists. Mira Hallin scored twice on the power play and added an assist, and captain Ebba Hedqvist had three assists.

The Swedes outshot Slovakia 57-18.

For Slovakia, 2023 tournament MVP Nela Lopusanova had a goal, as did Lenka Karkoskova and Ema Tothova. For the second consecutive game, the Slovaks scored first and were tied through 40 minutes, but couldn’t nab any points.

Slovak starting goalie Livia Debnarova, who was pulled in the third period against the Americans, was a difference-maker to keep her team in it.

These two sides were coming off very different openers. Coach Andreas Karlsson’s Swedes set the right tone on Day One with a 6-1 thumping of the Swiss. Coach Gabriela Sabolova’s Slovaks gave the U.S. a hard fight through two periods before allowing six unanswered goals for a 7-1 loss.

Lopusanova earned 12 points en route to MVP honours as a 14-year-old IIHF rookie. That included multiple highlight-reel goals, including the first “Michigan” goal ever scored in IIHF play. The Zilina-born sniper was hungry to score here after going pointless in her first 2024 game.

Just 1:14 in, Lopusanova drew first blood on the power play after Sweden’s Linnea Natt och Dag was sent off for tripping Tothova. A Lilien Benakova shot rebounded off Lundstrom’s pad to the Bishop Kearney Selects sniper in the right faceoff circle. Lopusanova snapped the puck high into the net and celebrated with exuberance.

The Swedes came right back at their opponents. Hedqvist waltzed right in on Debnarova, forcing her to make a nice right pad save. At the other end, Swedish goalie Lovisa Lundstrom foiled Slovak captain Tatania Blichkova twice on solo dashes.

Sweden went ahead on two near-identical power play goals. Hedqvist found Hallin unguarded at Debnarova’s crease…