Leon Draisaitl led the way with a hat trick to help Team Europe defeat Team Sweden 6-2 at Verizon Center on Wednesday.
Coach Ralph Krueger said he was happy to see Draisaitl rebound after limiting his ice time in the second game. The 20-year-old Edmonton Oilers forward working with the coaching staff on small improvements this week.
"When you see this type of reaction, he could've easily laid down and quit and, no, he came back fighting," Krueger said. "It's the character of our team. We're an underdog team built with underdog countries, and an individual like Leon is just a great example of the little nuances that are happening within our life as a group."
Tomas Tatar, Thomas Vanek and Anze Kopitar also scored for Team Europe. Daniel Sedin and Patric Hornqvist scored for Team Sweden.
Team Sweden goalie Henrik Lundqvist allowed five goals on 22 shots in 47:01. Jacob Markstrom made one save in relief.
Team Europe goalie Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves on 36 shots.
Team Sweden lost two of three pretournament games, including in overtime to Team Finland.
Draisaitl opened the scoring at 8:53 of the first period, redirecting a Zdeno Chara slap shot from the point past Lundqvist, who had lost his stick.
Tatar made it 2-0 at 2:48 of the second with a power-play goal. He scored on the rush from the left circle off a pass from Marian Gaborik.
Team Europe forward Jannik Hansen was tripped by defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson while on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot at 4:21 of the second, but Lundqvist made the save.
Draisaitl scored his second goal at 14:31 to make it 3-0. He maneuvered around defenseman Mattias Ekholm and beat Lundqvist over his glove.
Sedin made it 3-1 when he scored on the power play with 2:53 left in the second. He one-timed an Erik Karlsson pass by Halak from the high slot.
Vanek scored on a breakaway at 5:01 of the third period to make it 4-1, and Draisaitl completed his hat trick at 6:46 of the third.
Hornqvist deflected a Victor Hedman slap shot past Halak at 15:09 of the third to make it 5-2.
"You don't have that many games, so you have to see what was good, what was not good enough, and what do you have to work on here in the next few days to get ready," Lundqvist said. "For sure, you're going to have a few meetings to talk about the good and the bad and learn from it and improve both personally and as a group."
Kopitar scored an empty-net goal with 32 seconds remaining.
The World Cup begins Saturday in Toronto.
Goal of the game: On Draisaitl's second goal of the game, he came down the right wing on the rush and deked past Ekholm before flicking the puck over Lundqvist's glove to give Team Europe a 3-0 lead.
Save of the game: Lundqvist wasn't fooled by Hansen's head fake and deke on his penalty shot in the second period. Lundqvist stayed firm and denied Hansen with a routine kick save.
Unsung moment of the game: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was in the right place at the right time when he prevented Team Sweden from scoring by swatting away a loose puck that trickled into the crease in the first period.
Highlight of the game: Vanek took advantage of Anton Stralman's giveaway in the neutral zone, got in alone on Lundqvist, and scored a top-shelf goal over Lundqvist's right shoulder.
They said it
"Just a lack of intensity to begin with. I don't think we came out playing our game. We tried to play their type of style, and they're much better than us at just that. They kind of picked us apart, and we made a few individual mistakes and gave up some tremendous scoring chances. Meanwhile, we couldn't execute on ours. It just kind of ran away from us. It was a poor performance." -- Team Sweden defenseman Anton Stralman
"We knew that it was going to be a tough start with 22, 23 players that never played together. The goal was just to improve with every game, whatever the score was, and I think we achieved that. It's not the best game yet, but we started stronger than we did last game and we worked through 60 minutes. They had some good moments and [Jaroslav Halak] made some unbelievable saves, and we're going to need that in the tournament too." -- Team Europe forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
"I think it's pretty easy to get motivated for those kinds of games, for this tournament. I didn't play very much the last game, so I had to make sure I'm ready to go off the bat, and I think our whole line played a pretty solid game. It was a good bounce back for me." -- Team Europe forward Leon Draisaitl
Need to know: Halak will be the No. 1 goaltender for Team Europe when the tournament begins. … Andrej Sekera led Team Europe in ice time with 19:16. … Team Sweden forward Daniel Sedin had nine shots on goal. … Erik Karlsson led Team Sweden in ice time with 21:21.
Team Sweden: Its first game of the World Cup is against Team Russia at Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVA Sports).
Team Europe: Its first game of the tournament is against Team USA at Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports).
via WC2016.com.
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