The United States is on a quest to play in their first championship final since 1992 and they haven’t won gold at a World Championship since 1933. They started strong, not giving up a goal through two games, beating Denmark 5-0 and Hungary 6-0. Through two games Garland had one goal and two assists.
Team USA only lost one game of the preliminary round in a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Switzerland, and bounced back beating Norway 6-5 in OT, Germany 6-3, Kazakhstan 6-1, and Czechia 5-2.
Garland has two goals and five assists, and O’Connor has tallied one goal and three assists through the tournament so far.
Hronek has six assists in seven games, including one on David Pastrnak’s go-ahead goal in Czechia’s 2-1 win over Norway. He helped Czechia to a 6-1 record in the preliminary round, the only loss at the hands of Team USA (5-2).
Czechia beat Switzerland 5-4, Denmark 7-2, Hungary 6-1, Kazakhstan 8-1, and Germany 5-0.
As Sweden is one of the host countries of the tournament, Pettersson said it has been great having the crowd on their side at Avicii Arena. Historically, Team Sweden has been 10-1 in first games when they host the World Championships, their only loss coming in 2013 in a 3-2 loss to Switzerland. Sweden used home-ice to its advantage, winning its first six games and only dropping one to Canada (5-3). Pettersson had two assists through the opening seven games.
Sweden only has six goals against after beating Slovakia 5-0, Austria 4-2, Finland 2-1, Latvia 6-0, Slovenia 4-0, and France 4-0.
In a conversation with Chris Faber, on the new Canucks Insider Podcast, Pettersson talked about the rivalry between Sweden and Finland and the magnitude of their one-goal win over the Finns.
“It’s huge. I think everybody on this team has grown up playing the Finns on the Junior National team and stuff like that all the way from under-16 to now,” Pettersson said. “You see the history of the games that has been played between the Finns and the Swedes and obviously the proudest moment in Swedish hockey history is the Olympic gold medal in Turin (2006) where we beat the Finns. It’s a deeply rooted rivalry and it’s always fun to play. It’s one of those games you get up for and the atmosphere at Avicii Arena here was unbelievable.”
Pettersson went on to explain the fan support for Team Sweden hockey is similar to soccer fandom.
“The chants, stuff like that, we’ve got drums going, like the soccer ultras. I know the MLS and the Whitecaps have a good following, so it’s kind of similar to that. One of the sites at the rink, we call it the Yellow Wall here in Sweden, and they’ve been great so far,” Pettersson said.
In the first quarterfinal game at Avicii Arena, Team USA matches up against Team Finland Thursday May 22nd at 7:20 a.m. PT and then Pettersson and Hronek will faceoff as Sweden takes on Czechia on Thursday May 22nd at 11:20 a.m. PT.
Matching up against NHL teammates is bound to happen with international competition and Pettersson says their competitive fire takes over and for those 60 minutes, it’s all business when pride for their respective countries is on the line.
“It’s a lot of fun, but it is intense,” Pettersson said. “Even though you know each other, it’s no friends on game day when you play those guys. We have a chuckle after and stuff like that, but we are where we are because of our competitiveness and our ability to play so when we play it’s all out. It’s fun to play against teammates, hopefully you can know some tricks they like to do, some tendencies and stuff like that.”
Switzerland takes on Austria at Jyske Bank Boxen in Denmark on Thursday May 22nd at 7:20 a.m. PT, while Canada and Denmark follow at 11:20 a.m. PT.
For the full conversation between Faber and Pettersson as well as Faber and O’Connor, you can watch the podcast on YouTube below.
