Sweden's Adrian Kempe celebrates with Gustav ForslingChris Young/The Canadian Press
Toronto Maple Leafs fans got a good look at 2014 top draft pick William Nylander on Friday in Sweden's 5-2 victory over the Czech Republic at the world junior hockey championship.
Nylander tallied at 10:29 of the second period, snapping a 2-2 draw and igniting chants of 'Go Leafs Go' among Leafs fans at the Air Canada Centre, which was met by some disapproving whistling from the crowd.
"It was good to get off to a good start in the tournament after two bad exhibition games," Nylander said. "It's our first game and we want to go far in the tournament, so we wanted to just play our game."
Adrian Kempe opened the scoring for Sweden on the power-play late in the first with Jens Looke making it 2-0 with 47 seconds left to play in the opening frame.
Jakub Vrana scored a pair of goals for the Czech Republic in the second period to erase the deficit, however, Nylander tallied 27 seconds after Vrana's tying goal to restore the Swedish lead heading into the third.
Kempe's second of the game five minutes into the third and Jacob de la Rose with an insurance marker was all the scoring the Swedes would need. Oskar Lindblom and Vancouver Canucks draft pick Gustav Forsling each had a pair of assists for the Swedes.
Sweden next faces Denmark on Saturday while the Czech's will play Switzerland, also on Saturday.