Swedes win Scandinavian derby, will play for gold again

The battle between Sweden and Finland is always a spirited affair, especially when it´s a knockout game. Friday´s semifinal did not disappoint, with the favoured Swedes winning 7-3. The game was actually closer than the score indicates, as it was tied 3-3 after two periods. Sweden was led by 3 points each from the line of Sebastian Collberg, Gustav Possler and Alexander Wennberg.

For the third year in a row, Team Sweden has advanced to the U18 World Championship game, needing to beat their familiar foes from Finland to reach the final. As would be expected, it wasn’t an easy game, as their Finnish opponents just would not go away.

Finland got an early opportunity on the power play after Sweden was penalized for too many players on the ice, and it took only 19 seconds to score, as Artturi Lehkonenwas the last to touch a bouncing puck in the Swedish goalmouth area. Less than two minutes later, however, Ville Pokka paid for his contribution to the goal by getting levelled by defenceman Linus Arnesson at the blueline. It was one of many hits exchanged in this game.

Just past the seven-minute mark of the first period, Finland almost went up 2-0, but Niklas Tikkinen lost control of the puck when he tried to put a move on Swedish netminder Oscar Dansk. Though he didn’t have to be brilliant on the Tikkinen breakaway, Dansk was outstanding in the game, stopping 41 of 44 shots. He could not be faulted on any of the goals that beat him, either, which is something he had in common with his Finnish counterpart, Joonas Korpisalo.

Fortunate to still be within a goal, the Swedish second line tied the game when Gustav Possler sent a pass out front to Jacob de la Rose, who fired the puck upstairs on Korpisalo, who had little chance to react.

” I was behind the net with three Finns, so I chose to pass the puck in front where de la Rose grabbed it and beautifully sniped it into the net,” described Possler on his first of three points in the game.

In the dying seconds of the period, Mattias Kalin had a golden opportunity to give Sweden the lead as he seemed to have an open net to shoot at, but Korpisalo got the pad across and just barely blocked it.

After an evenly played first period, the Swedes came out storming out of the gate in the second, getting goals from Gustav Possler and Erik Karlsson in the first seven minutes of the period to go up 3-1. The pesky Finns would not quit, however, and they pushed back. First Juuso Ikonen hit the post on a three-on-two, but just moments later they got a break just shy of the game’s halfway point when a long shot by Artturi Lehkonen found its way through traffic in front of Dansk and went in to cut the lead in half. Exactly two minutes later the game was tied, when Risto Ristolainen fired a bullet from the point on the power play, and then added fuel to the fire by taunting the Swedish bench.

With 20 minutes to play, the game was again tied. Once again, Sweden broke the tie, when a long shot by Jesper Petterson found the back of the net with 14:14 left in regulation time. Once again, the Finns would attempt to come back. But this time, they got a little bit overzealous with their forechecking and Lehkonen took an interference penalty in front of the Swedish goal. Then the Finns caught a bad break. Attempting to ice the puck on the penalty kill, Ristolainen launched the puck from his own zone, across the length of the ice, and into the safety netting above the glass behind the Swedish goal. He was assessed a minor penalty for delaying the game, giving the Swedes a lengthy two-man advantage.

In a game that was full of high shots, Filip Forsberg wired one into the top corner to restore the Swedes’ two-goal advantage. The early fighting spirit of the Finns seemed to degenerate into frustration at this point, and the Swedes scored two more goals on Jean Auren, who took over for Korprisalo in the Finnish net.

“I feel very empty,” was Lehkonen’s reaction to the game. With two goals, Finland’s top-line right winger did all he could to help his team, but it wasn’t enough. “We lost the game ourselves when we gave them a long five-on-three power play, which turned on us. I am disappointed.”

With their Scandinavian rivals vanquished, Sweden has once again earned a trip to the gold medal game. After losing to the USA in each of the past two years, they hope that the third time’s the charm.

“It is an important win for us because we advance to the finals, where we want to beat either Canada or the U.S.,” Possler concluded. “It will be about details a lot.”