Sweden cruises in win over China

The Tre Kronor dominated in the first period en route to an 8-1 victory over China.

UTICA, New York -- Hilda Svensson scored twice and added an assist as Sweden made quick work of China in an 8-1 victory at the IIHF Women's World Championship on Friday.

Svensson put Sweden on the board 6:38 into the opening period with a wrist shot from the slot and beat Jiahui Zhan glove side. She doubled the lead 79 seconds later on the power play with a shot from the left faceoff dot.

"I was trying to shoot over the pads (on the first goal)," Svensson said."The other (goal), she had a lot of open net, so I just tried to shoot there."

Lina Ljungblom made it 3-0 at 12:33 of the first, collecting a bounce off the end boards and potting it from the left edge of the crease. Felizia Wikner Zienkiewicz extended the lead further with 2:14 left to play in the period.

The Swedes finished the first period with a 20-0 advantage in shots and ultimately outshot the Chinese, 56-6.

"I think it was important to score so early," Svensson said. "I think we came into the game good and we felt like we had a lot of energy."

Defender Paula Bergstrom finished with three assists. Ljungblom and Sofie Lundin recorded a goal and an assist apiece for Sweden, which improved to 2-0 in Group B.

The Tre Kronor put the game far out of reach with goals by Lundin and Josefin Bouveng in the first 66 seconds of the middle period before China registered its first shot on net at 1:48. Less than a minute later, Hanna Olsson made it 8-0.

China finally got on the board when Minghui Kong collected a pass at the  blueline behind the Swedish defense and scored on a breakaway against netminder Ida Boman.

Zhan, who turned 18 on Thursday, finished with 16 saves in 20 minutes of play. She was replaced by Yuqing Wang, who made 32 saves across the final two periods.

"The level of play is really different between our team and then the other team," Zhan said. "My goal is to make the first (save) and then seek the second one. If I save the second one, find the third one and then just keep it going, keep it rolling. It is having that mentality of never giving up is what I think a good goalie should have."

China dropped to 0-1-0-1.