Denmark's Jonas Rondbjerg (#46) scores the first of his two goals on Norway at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / MATT ZAMBONIN
What a difference a couple of days can make. Denmark grabbed its third victory in four days to draw level with Germany and leap into the thick of the race for a quarter-final spot at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Now victory over the Germans on Tuesday would catapult the host into the knock-out rounds for the first time since 2016.
And defender Jesper Jensen Aabo couldn’t be more psyched: “Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. That was the final we wanted before the tournament started. As far as I know, we’ve got everything in our own hands, and that feels great at home against Germany, our neighbour. It’s going to be fun. I’m excited!”
Saturday's 6-3 success over Norway continues a big turnaround for the host nation, which dropped its first three games at the Jyske Bank Boxen. Now fears of a relegation battle are replaced with dreams of progress after an incident-packed game in Herning. But the Norwegians remain rooted to the foot of the Group B standings with just one point. Tobias Johansson’s team faces a must-win game against Hungary on Monday to escape relegation to 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I, Group A.
Denmark had a reinforcement for today’s game in the shape of Jonas Rondbjerg. The Golden Knights forward spent more time with Henderson than Vegas this season, but he made a fine start to his IIHF career with two goals on debut. Power play goals from Oscar Moelgaard, Mikkel Aargaard, Joachim Blickfeld and Nick Olesend gave Denmark a commanding lead. Norway’s responses came from Eirik Salsten in the first period, Jacub Berglund in the second and Thomas Olsen in the last minute.
That meant contrasting emotions for the two sets of players.
“We gotta keep five men on the ice,” lamented Norway’s Max Krogdahl. “We were four on the ice for what felt like the whole game, and their power play’s really good. “They took advantage of that and feel like that’s where we lost the game.
“Five on five, I think we’re pretty equal to them, so it sucks that it turns out that way.”
“I’m happy!” said Danish forward Russell. “I thought we played a good first period. We came out strong on the body, won our battles, created some offence and got them to be frustrated. So they took some penalties, and we made them pay for that. I thought we played a smart, solid game.”
The game sprang into life in the 14th minute when a couple of Norwegian penalties handed Denmark a 5-on-3 power play for just over a minute. The home team cashed in for two goals.
First came Oscar Moelgaard, who did a superb job in circling the zone to pull the defensive trio out of place. After opening a lane, he drilled the puck to Russell, who gobbled up his second goal of the tournament at the back door.
“We’ve tried [that play] a couple of times in practice,” Russell added. “We have a couple of plays there. I don’t even think the goalie moved until it was in the net. So that was a really nice pass. I probably could have caught it and put it in! We had some big goals tonight. Power play, 5-on-5, it was overall a really good game.”
Moelgaard was involved in the second goal, too. This time, a Nicklas Jensen shot cannoned back off the boards and Mikkel Aagaard continued his hot streak as he put the rebound away. Aagaard, who spent the last four seasons with MoDo in Sweden, picked up his fifth goal in six games here in Herning to maintain his best Ice Hockey World Championship performance to date.
Norway needed an instant response – and got it. The impressive Stian Solberg, playing with a maturity that belies his 19 years, was active on the blue line and his crisp point shot was deftly steered into the net by Salsten to halve the deficit.
That kept the game very much alive going into the second period and a chance for Noah Steen early in the middle frame forced Frederik Dichow into a good save to preserve Denmark’s lead.
But Norway’s pressure came to naught and when the Danes forced a turnover, they pounced. Jensen’s block, Russell’s poke check and Rondbjerg was clear of the Norwegian defence to score in his first game of the tournament.
If that goal was a headache, the Norwegians soon faced a more serious condition. Michael Brandsegg-Nyland, one of the most promising young forwards on the team, was ejected from the game after levelling defender Anders Koch. The major penalty saw Denmark dart around Jonas Arntzen’s zone, firing in dangerous shots at will. The goalie pulled off some huge saves, his team-mates selflessly flung themselves in front of pucks, but the pressure paid off. Solberg was hobbled after another courageous block and that further loss of manpower helped Blichfeld rifle home an unstoppable effort from the left-hand circle. Solberg limped to the locker room for treatment, returning in the third period.
Norway’s task wasn’t helped by a delay of game penalty on Martin Ronnild, but the PK dug deep and there was no further damage. But there was also a long time with no Norwegian offence and, back at full strength, an attempt to pick up the pieces led to another breakaway chance and another goal for Rondbjerg.
That spelled the end for Arntzen – a move intended to reinvigorate the team rather than punish a goalie who was dealt a rough hand in this game – and Norway managed to pull one back late in the middle stanza when Jacob Berglund forced a turnover in the centre ice and skated away to finish the rush himself.
Norway has previous for improbable fightbacks in Herning: witness that 5-5 tie against the USA. But when Steen looked to kick-start another revival in the fifth minute of the third, Dichow produced a stunning glove save to steal a goal from the Norwegian forward and stymie any recovery.
Then another power play saw Olesend fire home a fine snipe from the right-hand circle. That gave him five points in three games to make it 6-2, improving Denmark's highest-scoring performance against its Nordic neighbour in IIHF play.
The game remained feisty to the end. Dichow got into some chat with the opposition in the closing moments. First he had something to say after stopping Solberg's penalty shot. Then, in the last minute, Olsen scored on the power play and responded by shushing the Danish goalie in the final act of a busy evening.
And defender Jesper Jensen Aabo couldn’t be more psyched: “Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. That was the final we wanted before the tournament started. As far as I know, we’ve got everything in our own hands, and that feels great at home against Germany, our neighbour. It’s going to be fun. I’m excited!”
Saturday's 6-3 success over Norway continues a big turnaround for the host nation, which dropped its first three games at the Jyske Bank Boxen. Now fears of a relegation battle are replaced with dreams of progress after an incident-packed game in Herning. But the Norwegians remain rooted to the foot of the Group B standings with just one point. Tobias Johansson’s team faces a must-win game against Hungary on Monday to escape relegation to 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I, Group A.
Denmark had a reinforcement for today’s game in the shape of Jonas Rondbjerg. The Golden Knights forward spent more time with Henderson than Vegas this season, but he made a fine start to his IIHF career with two goals on debut. Power play goals from Oscar Moelgaard, Mikkel Aargaard, Joachim Blickfeld and Nick Olesend gave Denmark a commanding lead. Norway’s responses came from Eirik Salsten in the first period, Jacub Berglund in the second and Thomas Olsen in the last minute.
That meant contrasting emotions for the two sets of players.
“We gotta keep five men on the ice,” lamented Norway’s Max Krogdahl. “We were four on the ice for what felt like the whole game, and their power play’s really good. “They took advantage of that and feel like that’s where we lost the game.
“Five on five, I think we’re pretty equal to them, so it sucks that it turns out that way.”
“I’m happy!” said Danish forward Russell. “I thought we played a good first period. We came out strong on the body, won our battles, created some offence and got them to be frustrated. So they took some penalties, and we made them pay for that. I thought we played a smart, solid game.”
The game sprang into life in the 14th minute when a couple of Norwegian penalties handed Denmark a 5-on-3 power play for just over a minute. The home team cashed in for two goals.
First came Oscar Moelgaard, who did a superb job in circling the zone to pull the defensive trio out of place. After opening a lane, he drilled the puck to Russell, who gobbled up his second goal of the tournament at the back door.
“We’ve tried [that play] a couple of times in practice,” Russell added. “We have a couple of plays there. I don’t even think the goalie moved until it was in the net. So that was a really nice pass. I probably could have caught it and put it in! We had some big goals tonight. Power play, 5-on-5, it was overall a really good game.”
Moelgaard was involved in the second goal, too. This time, a Nicklas Jensen shot cannoned back off the boards and Mikkel Aagaard continued his hot streak as he put the rebound away. Aagaard, who spent the last four seasons with MoDo in Sweden, picked up his fifth goal in six games here in Herning to maintain his best Ice Hockey World Championship performance to date.
Norway needed an instant response – and got it. The impressive Stian Solberg, playing with a maturity that belies his 19 years, was active on the blue line and his crisp point shot was deftly steered into the net by Salsten to halve the deficit.
That kept the game very much alive going into the second period and a chance for Noah Steen early in the middle frame forced Frederik Dichow into a good save to preserve Denmark’s lead.
But Norway’s pressure came to naught and when the Danes forced a turnover, they pounced. Jensen’s block, Russell’s poke check and Rondbjerg was clear of the Norwegian defence to score in his first game of the tournament.
If that goal was a headache, the Norwegians soon faced a more serious condition. Michael Brandsegg-Nyland, one of the most promising young forwards on the team, was ejected from the game after levelling defender Anders Koch. The major penalty saw Denmark dart around Jonas Arntzen’s zone, firing in dangerous shots at will. The goalie pulled off some huge saves, his team-mates selflessly flung themselves in front of pucks, but the pressure paid off. Solberg was hobbled after another courageous block and that further loss of manpower helped Blichfeld rifle home an unstoppable effort from the left-hand circle. Solberg limped to the locker room for treatment, returning in the third period.
Norway’s task wasn’t helped by a delay of game penalty on Martin Ronnild, but the PK dug deep and there was no further damage. But there was also a long time with no Norwegian offence and, back at full strength, an attempt to pick up the pieces led to another breakaway chance and another goal for Rondbjerg.
That spelled the end for Arntzen – a move intended to reinvigorate the team rather than punish a goalie who was dealt a rough hand in this game – and Norway managed to pull one back late in the middle stanza when Jacob Berglund forced a turnover in the centre ice and skated away to finish the rush himself.
Norway has previous for improbable fightbacks in Herning: witness that 5-5 tie against the USA. But when Steen looked to kick-start another revival in the fifth minute of the third, Dichow produced a stunning glove save to steal a goal from the Norwegian forward and stymie any recovery.
Then another power play saw Olesend fire home a fine snipe from the right-hand circle. That gave him five points in three games to make it 6-2, improving Denmark's highest-scoring performance against its Nordic neighbour in IIHF play.
The game remained feisty to the end. Dichow got into some chat with the opposition in the closing moments. First he had something to say after stopping Solberg's penalty shot. Then, in the last minute, Olsen scored on the power play and responded by shushing the Danish goalie in the final act of a busy evening.
Denmark vs Norway - 2025 IIHF WM
OF