Team Europe notched their first win of the pre-tournament games with a 6-2 victory over Team Sweden, Wednesday night at Verizon Center. Team Europe, who was coming off of a pair of losses to the “young guns” of Team North America, bounced back, aided by a hat trick by Leon Draisaitl. Both teams will now travel to Toronto for the World Cup of Hockey (WCH) tournament that starts this Saturday.
Period 1
The Swedes and Team Europe battled evenly through the first period until Leon Draisaitl scored the games first goal at 8:53.
The period ended with Team Europe up 1-0 over the Swedes — their first lead of the exhibition games. Shots on Goal were even 10-10.
Period 2
Tomas Tatar would stretch Team Europe’s lead to 2-0 on a nasty snipe from the left dot at 2:48 of the middle period.
Leon Draisaitl made it 3-0 for Team Europe, 16:54 minutes into the second period.
Daniel Sedin would notch Team Sweden’s first goal of the game, with assists from Erik Karlsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson at 17:07.
The period would end with Team Europe up 3-1 over Team Sweden.
Third Period
At 14:58 in the period, Team Europe’s Thomas Vanek turned a steal into the team’s fourth goal of the game. Less than two minutes later Draisaitl scored his third goal of the game, giving Team Europe a 5-1 lead.
Wisely, the Swedes replaced top netminder Henrik Lundqvist with backup Jacob Markstrom. At 15:09 Victor Hedman blasted a slapshot and Patric Hornqvist tiped it in for the score, making it 5-2, Team Europe. Team Europe’s Capitan Anze Kopitar added an empty netter with 32 seconds left in the game to seal the victory for Team Europe.
Scenes from Verizon Center
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By Jon Sorensen
