Special Red Wings Defense Prospect Hits Milestone
This Detroit Red Wings prospect had a wild first game at the World Junior Championship.
Woah, momma.
The Detroit Red Wings have a gem on their hands.
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On the first day of the 2025 World Junior Championship, Axel Sandin-Pellikka had arguably the best performance out of any other player. The only one who comes close is Cole Hutson, who recorded five assists in Team USA's 10-4 dominant victory over Germany.
Sandin-Pellikka put his stamp on the tournament with a four-point performance, including his first-ever hat-trick at a World Junior Tournament.
He led Sweden to a 5-2 victory over Slovakia. The Red Wings prospect was all over the ice with 20:55 of ice time. Only fellow defender Tom Willander played more, with 24:43 of ice time.
As if Sandin-Pellikka scoring a hat-trick wasn't enough, the manner in which he did it was also impressive. The young Swede fired 11 shots on goal as part of his performance and earned himself the Best Player of the Game award for Team Sweden.
Sandin-Pellikka spoke to the media after the game. He discussed Team Sweden's back-end skills and how that impacted the game.
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"We have a lot of defensemen who like to play with the puck," Sandin-Pellikka revealed. "So it's fun that we got some goals from there. We played a good game overall, so we're happy."
"We had a lot of chances and knew pucks were going to go in soon enough, and they did."
Sweden finished the game with 34 shots. They will play again on Friday against Kazakstan at 5 PM Eastern Time.
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