Jacob de la Rose tackled Denmark’s Patrick Russell against the rim in front of the Swedish booth in a numerical disadvantage and kept him there.
Then the referee blew for an expulsion on Raymond, who was sitting in the Swedish booth, for holding the stick.
“I was close to getting the stick in the face and I don’t want it there and so I got sent off instead,” he describes.
TT: Have you been kicked out of the booth before?
— I certainly have when I was younger, but nothing that comes to mind. Things that happen. Glad we killed the expulsion, he says.
“Just pinch it”
Lucas Raymond had several good chances before he finally got a payoff when Sweden went ahead in the third period.
— Great, I got in there well so it was just a matter of pinching it there. We have had many chances and created a lot in many games so the output should have been even higher. But we win the games, we feel better and better with each game, says Raymond.
With a goal and an assist, he is up to two goals and five assists so far.
“Obviously important”
Now the USA awaits in a directly decisive match for the group victory already on Tuesday.
This is where he wants his team to reach:
— Of course it’s important, you want to win all the matches, but at the same time you don’t win the tournament in the group stage. The goal is to play all the way to Sunday. But of course you put yourself in a better position, he says.
The USA has yet to drop a single point in the tournament.
— They have a good team with many young players. I know the coach well from Detroit, it’s a well-coached team. It should be fun, they play in a different way than what we have faced so far, says Raymond.
The 21-year-old Detroit forward was satisfied with Sweden’s closing period against Denmark. There is also the recipe for winning over the USA and taking home the group victory.
— When we play with speed and bite into each other in the forecheck and play quickly out of our own zone, we are good. We have a lot of big players who are good at wearing teams down. Then we need efficiency in special teams (numerically superior and inferior) as well, he says.