William Nylander enjoyed a memorable moment at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Friday, except it was as a member of Team Sweden, as it opened its 2015 world junior tournament.
There will come a time - very likely to be soon, too - when Nylander is playing on that same ice surface for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club that took him eighth overall in June’s NHL Draft. For now, he’s competing for his nation. Nylander scored the winning goal to give Sweden what was ultimately a 5-2 win over the Czech Republic in Group B action.
He received quite the reaction from the fans in Toronto, too.
William Nylander scores to give Sweden a 3-2 lead at the ACC. That prompts a "Go Leafs Go" chant.
— Tony Ambrogio (@Tony_Ambrogio) December 26, 2014
William Nylander on fans reaction to announcement of goal: "That was amazing. It’s a great feeling when you are sitting there on the bench."
— Tony Ambrogio (@Tony_Ambrogio) December 27, 2014
The result also helped. Canada and the U.S. might be the favorites in terms of the odds, but Sweden is also right there in the mix, too.
“It was good to get off to a good start in the tournament after two bad exhibition games,” said Nylander, as per the IIHF World Junior website. “It’s our first game, and we want to go far in the tournament, so we wanted to just play our game and get going.”