Sweden finishes rout of Norway

To almost no surprise, Sweden finished off Norway, 7-1, at Dwyer Arena on the campus of Niagara University on Sunday. Patrick Cehlin had a pair of goals, and Sebastian Wannstrom, John Klingberg and Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist each. In goal, Fredrik Pettersson-Wentzel stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced.

The rout started early as Sweden scored on its first shot. Wannstrom, a 2010 second-round pick of the Blues, set up Klingberg just 57 seconds into the game, and then scored himself late in the first.

Cehlin, a Predators prospect, made it 3-0 when he scored his first goal 4:09 into the second. Cehlin had a chance on a penalty shot later in the period when he was upended on a breakaway, but Norway goalie Lars Volden denied him. He made up for it, however, with 16.9 seconds left in the period off a Landeskog feed.

"We had a very good game, even if some of us were nervous in the beginning," Cehlin told reporters. "I'm really happy about today's game, even if the penalty shot didn’t go in."

Sweden increased its lead with a pair of goals in the first 2:01 of the third. Erixon, a Flames prospect, scored just 49 seconds in, and then Landeskog, a favorite to go in the top 10 of the 2011 Entry Draft, scored to make it 6-0.

Erik Borresen scored Norway's lone goal midway through the third, and then Carl Klingberg, like Pettersson-Wentzel a Thrashers prospect, closed the scoring.

"We really thought about how we could beat Sweden, but we made too many mistakes and we allowed them to score goals too easily at the beginning, and that broke us down," Norway captain Andreas Stene told reporters.

Norway comes right back Monday with a game against the Czech Republic, while Sweden is off until Tuesday, when they face Russia. You can expect to see Robin Lehner in goal for Sweden then.

"We want to win the gold and we have to fight hard for it," said Cehlin. "We know we will have a tougher challenge in two days against Russia, and we have to play as well as we possibly can."