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Ice Hockey World Championship: Fourth win for Canada and Sweden

Canada defeated Norway 4:1.(Bild: AFP/APA/Michal Cizek)

The top favorites Canada and Sweden celebrated their fourth victory in their fourth game at the Ice Hockey World Championships in the Czech Republic on Thursday. Defending champions Canada defeated Norway 4:1 (1:0,1:0,2:1) in Austria Group A in Prague, while Sweden beat Kazakhstan 3:1 (1:0,1:0,1:1) in Group B in Ostrava and are the only team in the tournament still without a point. The USA defeated France 5:0 (4:0,0:0,1:0).

Canada clearly dominated underdog Norway and did not allow the Scandinavians a single shot on goal in the first two thirds. However, the world champions only led 2-0 thanks to goals from Brandon Tanev (12th) and Andrew Mangiapane (23rd). 18-year-old Stian Solberg scored with Norway's second goal (43rd). Two days after the collapse in the final third against Austria, when the ÖEHV team had come back from a five-goal deficit, Dylan Cozens immediately dampened the Norwegians' hopes of winning a point while short-handed (47). Jared McCann fixed the final score with a goal into an empty net (59').

Matt Boldy was the man of the match in the victory for the US team, which had already taken a 4-0 lead against France after the first period. The teammate of Marco Rossi at Minnesota Wild set up the opening goal after 45 seconds and scored the following two goals (4th, 13th).