Norway move to second in sledge hockey World Series

Norway take a double win, but a victory for Sweden gives them their own edge in the overall standings. 26 Nov 2014
Imagen
Sledge hockey players on the ice in action
ⒸKristian Nord
By IPC

Norway have moved to second place in the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Series table after a double win over Sweden at home in the Scandinavian Challenge in Moss between 21-23 November.

On Friday (21 November), A-pool Norway took down B-pool Sweden in an 11-1 victory with Audun Bakke scoring six goals and established teammate Rolf Pedersen finding the net twice.

With 33 shots on goal compared with Sweden’s eight, Norway came into their first World Series game fighting after beating Sweden 2-0 in their last meeting at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

However the second game on Saturday was a close run affair, with Sweden this time taking the win 5-6. Four goals for quadruple Paralympian Pedersen was not enough to see off a storming performance by Per Kasperi, who scored five times for the Swedes.

Niklas Rakos also got involved for Sweden, scoring their fifth goal. Sweden’s defence saw off 17 shots over the three periods with the help of goalie Ulf Nilsson.

Balance was restored to the match-up on Sunday (23 November) with Norway’s second win of the weekend (6-0). Once again Pedersen was the top scorer, finding the net three times.

This time Loyd Remi Solberg and Thomas Jacobsen got in on the action with a goal each alongside Bakke with his seventh goal in three games.

Another notable addition to the Norwegian team was Lena Schroder who played her first game for the national team, to become the second woman in history to compete for her country.

The double win for Norway propels them to second place in the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Series table with 2.33 points, just behind fellow A-poolers Czech Republic with 3.66. Sweden picked up two points for their win and the goals scored against Norway, which places them third ahead of A-Pool Germany who have 1.66 points.

The next World Series matches are scheduled for 19-21 December in Litomerice, Czech Republic, with games between A-Pool teams from the host country, Germany and Italy and B-Pool team South Korea.

All teams are jostling for position ahead of their respective 2015 World Championships.

The 2015 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool take place between 24 April-2 May and feature Paralympic champions the USA, Russia and defending world champions Canada. Norway, Italy, Germany and Japan will also line-up.

The 2015 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships B-Pool take place between 15-21 March. Teams from South Korea, Sweden, Great Britain, Slovakia and Poland are expected.