Sweden's U18 men have won their first match in the U18 WC 2024 in Finland. After Kazakhstan surprisingly took the lead, Sweden were outnumbered after that, winning 7-1 in the end.

The small crowns played their second match in the U18 World Cup 2024 on Saturday when Kazakhstan was the opposition. Both teams came to the meeting with one opening loss each against Canada and Switzerland, respectively. Sweden were massive favorites before the match, where they hoped for exchange for several individually skilled players. However, Kazakhstan took the lead in the match when Jakob Ihs Wozniak's sending off resulted in a Kazakh power play and 0-1 from team captain Abzal Alibek.

Although Sweden had a rather difficult time creating chances, an important equalizing goal came. Debutant Valter Lindberg was responsible for the goal where he managed Victor Eklund's fine spin pass to make it 1-1 for Sweden. In Småkronorna's first power play of the match, the lead goal also came when the just-mentioned Eklund headed in Alexander Zetterberg's rock-hard pass to make it 2-1 for Sweden and Blågult were catching up after a classy goal. Sweden was better in the first period and fairly led 2-1 into the middle period.

The small crowns got an early power play in the second period and then extended their lead to 3-1 through Jakob Ihs Wozniak. Assist? The best player of the match so far Victor Eklund. Half a minute later it was 4-1 for Sweden when Adam Hesselvall extended the Swedish lead after a dream start. The two early goals were Sweden's only in the middle period and they had 4-1 going into the third.

After four minutes in the third period, Jack Berglund made it 5-1 for Sweden. Berglund received the puck from goalkeeper Love Härenstam in his own zone and then went in with a solo goal for the Småkronorna, where he tricked many Kazakhs on his way to the goal and where he then put his own rebound to the fifth for Sweden. In the middle of the third, Sweden expanded further through Lucas Pettersson after another fine solo action, this time from the MoDo forward.

Pettersson was then behind Sweden's goal to make it 7-1 where his hard pass reached Melvin Fernström's club and the sniper was able to steer the seventh in very nicely. A completely superior Swedish team won in the end with 7-1 where they fired over 60 shots at Kazakhstan. Although the Kazakhs took the lead, Sweden was the bigger number throughout the match. The next match for Småkronorna is tomorrow (Sunday 28 April) against the Czech Republic, starting at 14:00 Swedish time.

Sweden – Kazakhstan, 7-1 (2-1, 2-0, 3-0)

05:32 0-1 Abzal Alibek
10:04 am 1-1 Valter Lindberg (Victor Eklund, Karl Annborn)
15:21 2-1 Victor Eklund (Alexander Zetterberg, Linus Eriksson)
20:36 3-1 Jakob Ihs Wozniak (Victor Eklund, Linus Eriksson)
21:20 4-1 Adam Hesselvall (Viggo Nordlund, Jack Berglund)
44:15 5-1 Jack Berglund (Love Härenstam)
49:17 6-1 Lucas Pettersson (Felix Öhrqvist, Melvin Fernström)
54:56 7-1 Melvin Fernström (Lucas Pettersson)

Updated April 27, 2024