Both national teams have been in the Skåne hockey city during the week for their respective Euro Hockey Tour tournaments and both managed to defeat the Czech Republic.
Tre Kronor had a tough season in the Euro Hockey Tour tournaments last season, winning only one of nine games in the first three before the team, with the help of NHL reinforcements for the World Cup, won the final one in the Czech Republic after three straight victories.
Sweden also won the quarter-final against the Czech Republic in the Globen in the home World Cup, where they won bronze.
But many of the European players in Tre Kronor were hungry for revenge.
None of them will take an Olympic spot – it will be difficult to knock the NHL stars out of Milan – but there will be places to fight for at the World Cup in Switzerland in May.
Homecoming scorer
It was a tight match between two teams that played at a high tempo, but created few scoring chances.
The Ängelholm crowd got to see two Rögle players on the ice – goalie Arvid Holm and forward Anton Bengtsson – but also a returning star.
Forward Simon Ryfors scored the lead goal in the second period to the great cheers of the crowd.
In a quick counterattack, he scored 1–0 in the left cross after debuting defender Jacob Larsson had made the goal-scoring pass.
Ryfors left Rögle for Swiss Davos after the Swedish Championship final loss against Skellefteå in 2024.
Via Czech lollipop
The former Rögle forward also got an assist on the 2-0 goal that Marcus Sylvegård thundered into at the start of the third period with a numerical advantage on Tim Heed's precise pass.
Marcus was fantastic. The 2-0 goal was very important, but above all, his way of working and catching the pucks was incredibly good, says national coach Sam Hallam to SVT.
However, the Czech Republic came back – on a dare. Heed lost the puck in front of his own goal and Jakub Lauko was able to reduce.
Sweden then had to play five against three for over a minute without being able to capitalize on it. Instead, defenseman Erik Brännström was able to make it 3–1 via a Czech stick with just over four minutes left.
We play well for 60 minutes. Compared to the last time we played against the Czech Republic, it's two classes better. A really good match, says Marcus Sylvegård.
Tre Kronor's men are now leaving Ängelholm and the two remaining matches in the Finnish Euro Hockey Tour tournament will be played in Tampere where Sweden meets Switzerland on Saturday and Finland on Sunday.
