BRATISLAVA, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Sweden launched a 5-0 onslaught in the first period of their Group B match against Austria and finished their opponents off 9-1 on Thursday.
It was a very bad day for Austria's goaltender Bernhard Starkbaum. Five out the first 15 even-strength shots landed in his goal and the game was promptly decided after the first period.
Austria offered little to none resistance to the two-time defending world champions and only scored one goal on their 1-9 loss when Michael Raffl deked out the Swedish veteran Henrik Lundqvist in the third period and robbed him of his shutout.
Sweden featured nine different scorers on their 9-1 win with Gabriel Landeskog, Elias Lindholm and Elias Pettersson adding also two assists to their goals. Landeskog only arrived in Bratislava on Thursday morning after his Colorado Avalanche was outed in the NHL playoffs.
After losing their opener, Sweden now has three straight wins and occupies third position in Group B. They will face off against undefeated Switzerland on Saturday.
The Austrians will have a good chance to score their first points at the tournament against the also point-less Norway on Friday.
