Sweden is expected to be one of the top medal contenders in this tournament and looked every bit the part in the opener. In Group B’s first game of the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Men’s World Championship at Vladimir Dzurilla Ice Arena in Bratislava, the Swedes put on a dominant performance against Germany, winning 7-2.
Marcus Nordmark wasn’t in the Swedish lineup but no matter. In a balanced attack, Bosse Meijer, Wiggo Sorensson, Max Isaksson, Ola Palma and Adam Andersson contributed two points each to give their team a 7-0 lead midway through the third period. A late offensive push by Germany made the final score a bit more respectable.
“I think we played two good periods and the last one, I think we slowed down too much and were playing their pace,” said Swedish forward Elton Hermansson, who had one assist and one disallowed goal in the game.
“Of course, it’s a difficult opponent playing against Sweden – we knew they would get lots of chances,” said German goaltender Bastian Bauer, who entered the game in relief with his team trailing 5-0 and stopped 17 of 19 shots.
The Germans probably had their best scoring chance of the game while playing shorthanded in the early going. Toni Furst and Jakub Kostner broke in alone, but Kostner fired the one-timer just wide.
Sweden opened the scoring at 9:20 when Olle Karlsson won a battle for the puck along the end boards and found Mikael Kim alone in front, who made no mistake.
Hermansson appeared to make it 2-0 about six minutes later when he perfectly executed the lacrosse-style “Michigan” move on a wraparound. However, Germany challenged for offside and it was successful, negating the goal.
“It’s a tactical move (by Germany) and it was barely offside, so I don’t have too much to say about that,” Hermansson shrugged.
It remained 1-0 into the second period but the Swedes broke the game open with four goals in a span of under 10 minutes in the middle frame.
First it was Hampus Zirtath, who finished off a play with a brilliant forehand deke past the outstretched glove of Niclas Wolter at 23:52. Then, just 20 seconds later, the Swedes scored off the rush to make it 3-0 when Meijer undressed a German defender and found Adam Nomme for the tap-in.
Just past the game’s midpoint, Meijer scored a shorthanded goal. Taking advantage of a blown tire by a German player in the neutral zone, he skated in on Wolter and beat the German goalie high to the glove side.
At that point, Wolter was lifted from the German net in favour of Bauer. Wolter was often at the mercy of the dangerous Swedish shooters, stopping 18 of 23 attempts.
The Germans had four straight power plays in the middle frame and two stretches where they had 5-on-3 advantages. They were unable to score and gave up a shorthanded goal. Late in the period, Malte Gustafsson came up with a pair of big blocks on the PK and limped back to the Swedish bench, where he was well-received.
“We have a good penalty kill, and I think that’s a key to our game,” said Gustafsson, who added that the shot stung for a while but he feels fine.
With the game well in hand, Sweden added two more goals in the first half of the third period – Sorensson with a beautiful low wrist shot on a 2-on-2 rush at 44:35 and then Hjalmar Cilthe absolutely leaned into a one-timer from the point at 48:12.
With 9:52 to go, Germany finally got on the board. Controlling the puck in the Swedish zone, defenceman Nikita Bloch made a nice move to elude a Swedish winger at the point and fired a long shot that found the roof of the net.
The Germans continued to push and Tobias Krestan rounded out the scoring with a blue-collar rebound goal with 6:08 remaining.
“A bit sloppy from our side, but I think it’s easy to identify and correct it,” Gustafsson said about the last 10 minutes of the game. “We know we can play better, so I don’t think that’s a problem.”
Both teams are back in action on Thursday – Sweden against Czechia and Germany against Denmark in what could turn out to be a huge encounter.
“If we just play simple and give it everything, I think we have a great chance of winning that game,” said Bauer.
