Finland beats Sweden in dramatic overtime win in 4 Nations Face-Off
MONTREAL — If that was the undercard, then what must the U.S. and Canada have been thinking?
Finland and Sweden, the other neighboring rivals in the 4 Nations Face-Off, delivered a show Saturday afternoon, playing 61:49 of tight, physical hockey with the Finns’ tournament lives on the line ending in overtime on Mikael Granlund’s winner for a 4-3 Finland victory.
Revenge for the 2006 Olympic gold.
Elation in Helsinki.
“Hopefully, they’re as happy as we are in the locker room,” Mikko Rantanen said of those watching in the Finnish capital. “Finland-Sweden rivalry, it’s been going on for 30 years. So hopefully, they’re having a good one tonight.”
Two nights prior against the United States, Finland failed in putting forth a 60-minute performance, falling apart in the third and failing to contain the Americans, with Juuse Saros breaking down in net.
Saturday, the Finns delivered for 60 minutes and then some, the pendulum of the match swinging back and forth as this pair of rivals played a dead-even hockey game packed with intrigue; Sweden switching its goalie, Finland moving around pieces on its top line, Suomi ultimately coming out on top.
“It should be tight, it is tight, we are very disappointed not being the winning team,” Swedish coach Sam Hallam said.
A second straight gut-punch loss in overtime for Tre Kroner does, however, set things up quite well for the NHL.
Going into Monday’s final set of round-robin games, all four teams will have a shot at advancing thanks to the 3-2-1 point system introduced for this tournament.
Letting another game slip through their hands, though, will hurt for the Swedes.
It was former Ranger Kaapo Kakko — a healthy scratch against Team USA — who helped swing this one after being promoted to the top line with Rantanen and Aleksander Barkov midway through the second.
Kakko recorded the primary assist on Barkov’s goal at 17:05 of the second, with both players at the net front to help stuff in Olli Määttä’s cross-crease feed and tie the game at three.
“Kaapo, he started really well, so that was the one reason why we needed to put him on the first line,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “Some fresh legs and he can win the battles and as we saw, he can go to the net. That was the one change we needed.”
Barkov’s goal tied things at three, setting up a last period packed with tension and short on goals, with both teams knowing they essentially had to win in order to keep their championship hopes alive.
When overtime came, it took a toe save by Kevin Lankinen on Mika Zibanejad to keep the game tied within seconds of the extra period starting. Lankinen came up big again to stop Adrian Kempe in tight, leading to an odd-man-rush at the other end that Granlund — showing pass — promptly converted.
“I’m not quite sure what happened, actually, to be honest,” Lankinen said of the save on Kempe. “I’ll probably have a look at it before diving deeper into it, but obviously, I was lucky that the puck stayed out.”
Said Hallam: “The puck bounces, pretty much on the goal line.”
Said Barkov: “Honestly, I don’t expect Granny to shoot when it’s three-on-one.”
Said Granlund: “I finally shot one of those. I’m glad it went in.”
After Swedish netminder Filip Gustavsson let up a pair of goals on four shots in the first — the second coming a little too easily off Rantanen’s mishit one-timer — Hallam went to Linus Ullmark in nets, later saying Gustavsson wasn’t feeling well and the move wasn’t performance-related.
Regardless, the move helped swing a 2-1 lead for Finland back into Sweden’s favor, as Rasmus Dahlin and Erik Karlsson scored consecutive goals to bring it to 3-2 midway through the second.
There were more twists yet to come.
“It’s always great to beat Sweden. Those games are fun to play,” Granlund said. “There’s so many people in Finland, in Sweden, who watch those games. It’s great to come [out] on top and at the same time, we are alive in this tournament.
“Everything is in our own hands. Good for us and we just move on to Monday.”
