Away from the Cologne limelight, two other brothers are helping Norway in Paris. 

by Lukáš Kratochvíl

PARIS – So far at the World Championship, a lot of the talk has been about Joel and Henrik Lundqvist playing for Sweden. But they are not the only brothers playing for the same national team at the 2017 tournament. Ken Andre Olimb and Mathis Olimb are even on the same line, leading Norway in their battle for the quarter-finals.

“Obviously, it was a dream and something we always wanted to do, to play with my brother Mathis for the national team. It makes it a little bit more special,” says Ken Andre. Third to the party is Patrick Thoresen, one of Norway's best scorers. “They’re both really good players, we’re all working hard and thinking the same way. Hopefully we can score some goals tonight,” Ken Andre said ahead of an important game against Canada.

Team Norway still has two games left in the group stage, and is eyeing a place among the top eight teams of the tournament. “We're focusing on Canada. We have to pick up some points to stay in the race for the quarter-finals. We’re going to give 100 percent to keep our chances up.”

The Oslo-native continued: “We have been playing well, we only had one game where we were not satisfied, that was against the Switzerland. But all the other games were good ones – everybody knows what to do, everybody is blocking shots and willing to sacrifice for the team. If we can do this tonight as well, you never know what will happen.”

This year the Olimbs both played at Linkoping in the SHL, something they both were keen to do. “We have been talking about playing on the same team for couple of years and before the last season, it felt like the right choice for both of us to join Linkoping. It was again something we were always hoping for and when we got the chance, we took it,” added the slightly younger 28-year-old (Mathis is 31). “The SHL is a bit different. It usually takes you some time to get used to playing in another league, and I had to change a bit after moving there.

"Of course, playing in the Champions Hockey League and different European competitions helps you to get to know different styles of hockey and get you a little bit more prepared for the international hockey," he finnished by saying.

This is not the first time the Olimb brothers have played together at the World Championships. We spoke to them a couple of years ago in Ostrava, Czech Republic as well.