With this defeat, Norway’s chances of playing in the quarter-finals are minimal.

Norway was without a shot on goal and trailing by two after two periods, but early in the third period Norway put more pressure on Canada and were immediately rewarded. Solberg reduced it to 1–2 on a pass from Eirik Salsten.

Solberg has already received widespread praise for his style of play at the World Cup, and he scored his second league goal on Thursday. A few minutes later, things got worse for the youngster, who made a bad pass while Norway were leading.

Dylan Cozens punished him hard and added to make it 3-1.

– We tried to do a little “push” at the end there. It was a bad move on my part,” Solberg told Viaplay.

– This becomes too easy to read. This happened just when we had little hope of equalizing, concluded Viaplay expert Ole Eskild Dahlstrøm.

– Tame

Brandon Tanev, Andrew Mangipane and Jared McCann also scored for the winning team in Prague.

– They are a few sizes bigger, at least with the washer. We run for two periods, then regain the energy we needed at the start of the third. I felt like we were close even though we maybe weren’t. Canada is a good team and we are making a valiant effort, but we are too small, said national team manager Tobias Johansson.

Captain Patrick Thoresen was not satisfied. He played his 100th official international match on Thursday.

– I think it’s a shame. Personally, I think it’s tame across the board. We can only thank Haukeland (Henrik, goalkeeper) and a good defensive game that we don’t lose anymore. It will be disappointing to lose such a match even if Canada was the leading team, Thoresen said.

Without “Zucca”

Norway will again play matches against Austria (Sunday) and Great Britain (Monday) in group play, but even two consecutive wins are unlikely to keep them in the quarter-final race. Norway are four points behind fourth-placed Finland with a game in hand. Additionally, Austria tops ranking five.

Norway’s only victory so far came against Denmark.

In Thursday’s match, Norway was missing star Mats Zuccarello. The NHL player is having issues with his body after a long season and had to miss two World Championship games.

Mathias Emilio Pettersen recently joined the team and replaced “Zucca” in the front row alongside Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Patrick Thoresen, who played his 100th official international match on Thursday.

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Tanev gave Canada the lead midway through the first period. He was allowed to stand unmarked in front of the goal and guided Kaiden Guhle’s pass into the goal. Norway was involved, but failed to put the puck on goal.

Canada came out in the 2nd period with a lot of energy and doubled the lead after two minutes. Mangipane finally had to stand alone in front of the goal and score after a good Canadian attack.

At the start of the third period, it was Norway’s turn to put pressure on the opponent and score, but it ultimately went Canada’s way. McCann scored into an open goal on the pad.