After the 4-2 win against the Czech Republic, which completed a hundred percent blue-yellow group stage, a quiet New Year's celebration awaited the Junior Crowns.
It was calm and nice. We had dinner at the hotel and tried to watch some fireworks, but it was pretty scarce with that, says Otto Stenberg on the phone from Ottawa.
Latvia next
Thanks to the group win, the Junior Crowns will face Latvia in Thursday's quarterfinal, the somewhat difficult-to-assess fourth team from the other group. On the one hand, the Latvians have not won a single match in regular time. On the other hand, they managed to press the home nation Canada to a draw and then won on penalties.
I saw that match. Canada had a lot of puck, many shots – but Latvia played tight as hell and had a good goalie. It will be like in some of our matches in the group stage, it's about us playing smart and not giving the opponents anything to build on, says Stenberg, the 19-year-old who is on loan from Frölunda to Malmö and has so far scored six points (1+5) in the Junior World Championship.
"A damn pressure"
The Junior Crowns are the only team that has taken full points so far in the tournament. If they advance to the semifinal, there is a high risk that Canada – only third in their group – will be waiting there.
They may not have reached their best level yet and have a damn pressure on them, I think, says Stenberg.
Do you feel any pressure then?
No, we don't. Canada and USA have won a lot and we are here to steal the trophy from USA, who won last year. But against the two nations, we feel that we are at a disadvantage.
Stenberg means that there is reason to talk about a gold position for the Junior Crowns, in that case the third through all time and the first since 2012.
Of course, I agree that we have good chances. It's something that we all have as a goal and that we fight for every day.
Thursday, 18.00 (Swedish time): Sweden (1)-Latvia (4)
Thursday, 20.30: USA (1)-Switzerland (4)
Thursday, 23.00: Finland (2)-Slovakia (3)
Friday, 01.30: Czech Republic (2)-Canada (3)
Before the semifinals, the teams are seeded according to their placings in the group stage, with the top-ranked team then facing the lowest-ranked and the second-ranked facing the third.
Source: International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
