Johan Garpenlöv got off to a tough start in his time as the national team captain for the Swedish ice hockey team, when Tre Kronor lost all three games in the Karjala Tournament last month.

And probably not many people thought it would be anything other than a loss when the team tonight started the Channel One Cup playing away against a star-studded Russia in Moscow.

Petersson started the goal shooter

But the doubters got it wrong. Sweden started the match quite brilliantly, and took the lead after 3.56 when André Petersson sneaked 1–0 into powerplay.

In the middle of the period Sweden extended through Daniel Brodin, and early in the second period also came 3–0 through Malte Strömwall, whose shot a little easily passed it for the day anything but magnificent Alexander Samonov in Russia's goal.

Magnificent Johansson

After that goal, the match picture became a different one. Russia, which then replaced Samonov and instead took in the Swedish goalkeeper Lars Johansson's club mate in CSKA Moskva (who plays their matches in the very arena in which this match was played), suddenly put a completely different momentum and got considerable pressure on Sweden.

It also produced results. However, Lars Johansson played big in goal, and it took almost a quarter of a minute before Vadim Chipachev managed to crack the zero via a nice direct shot in power play.

Johansson strengthened the World Cup chances

The third period was basically a single long Russian press against Lars Johansson. But Johansson, who defintivitously strengthened his World Cup chances, stood for a really nice match and made his 45 saves so that Sweden could finally win by 3-4, after Daniel Zaar scored Sweden's fourth goal just over halfway into the third period. which meant that Kirill Kaprizov's two goals did not play a role for Sweden.

Thus, Johan Garpenlöv is no longer a victory as the Swedish Confederation.