Hitting double digits

STOCKHOLM Fans who attended Norways 12-4 romp over Germany on Sunday should hold on to their ticket stubs, because they witnessed something pretty rare.

It was a crazy game, stated Norways Marius Holtet. Weve been beaten by double digits before, but not won.

Patrick Thoresens six-point explosion paced the squad in polar bear jerseys to this romp, which was unprecedented for Norway in the modern era. The only other times the Norwegians had scored 10 or more goals in World Championship action were in 1949 (11-1 over Belgium), 1950 (11-0 over France), and 1962 (12-2 over Great Britain), when the international hockey landscape looked very different.

Norway isnt renowned for its offensive prowess in elite division play. However, hitting double digits is rare in general these days.

Since 2000, seven out of the 12 World Championships played have had no games with double-digit scoring. And when it has happened (, , , , ), its invariably been Big Seven nations thrashing opponents that never or only sporadically make the quarter-finals. (The last time a non-Big Seven country made double digits, it was Austria 10, Great Britain 0 in 1994.)

Czech Republic 11, Italy 0Sweden 11, Austria 0

Slovakia 10, Japan 1Finland 12, Slovenia 0

Russia 10, Kazakhstan 1Canada 11, Latvia 0

United States 10, Kazakhstan 0Canada 12, Norway 1

So what happened on Sunday is a real change of pace.

In Germany, the Norwegians hammered a foe that had seemed to be solidifying its status as a top-eight nation, finishing fourth on home ice in and seventh last year.

Norway is bound for its third top-eight finish in the last five years, and now its challenge is to see whether it can establish greater consistency than other recent contenders like Germany, Switzerland, and Belarus.

Everything went in, stated Norways Morten Ask about the Germany shocker. Weve never experienced anything like this. We just have to be happy and look forward to the quarter-finals.

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Submited at Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 6:00 pm on Uncategorized by McField
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