Sweden Beats Canada in Shootout to Win Gold at Worlds

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

First 60 minutes wasn't enough, then another 20 wasn't either. After playing through regulation and a full 20-minute overtime, the Gold Medal Game at the World Championships went to a shootout.

Sweden scored the only two goals of the shootout, by Nicklas Backstrom and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, while Henrik Lundqvist made saves on all four of Canada's attempts to claim the gold medal with a 2-1 win over Canada.

The only two goals of regulation were separated by a matter just over two minutes, but in separate periods. With Canada on the power play later in the second, Victor Hedman threw a shot on goal that took a couple bounces before beating Calvin Pickard to give Sweden the lead with a shorthanded goal. 

Canada had power-play time carry over to the third period. While they didn't score in those few seconds, Canada was back on the power play almost immediately with Travis Konecny selling a high-stick to draw a penalty. Ryan O'Reilly cashed in for Canada just 10 seconds later to tie the game. 

After an exciting overtime with chances going both ways, the game headed to a shootout. Nicklas Backstrom scored first for Sweden in the second round after both William Nylander and Nathan MacKinnon were stopped. Brayden Point was stopped in the second round for Canada as well.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson followed with a goal in the third round for Sweden and with Ryan O'Reilly hitting the post on his attempt, Sweden could win with a goal or a save. Gabriel Landeskog was stopped by Pickard, meaning Mitch Marner had to score to keep the game alive. Marner was stopped by Henrik Lundqvist to give Sweden the gold.

Nylander was named MVP of the tournament for Sweden. Both teams' goaltenders — Pickard for Canada and Lundqvist for Sweden — were named Player of the Game.

Canada, a team constructed by Flyers GM Ron Hextall, coached by Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper with Flyers coach Dave Hakstol as an assistant, and consisting of five Flyers — Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny — took home the silver in their third straight trip to the Gold Medal Game. They had won gold in the previous two years.

Giroux had two shots in 21:25 in the final game. Simmonds had one shot in 13:59. Schenn had no shots in 7:39. Couturier had one shot and took a tripping penalty in overtime in 21:04 of ice time. Konecny played 16:57 with no shots.

Bronze Medal Game

Russia defeated Finland in the Bronze Medal Game earlier on Sunday, 5-3. 

Russia opened up a 4-0 lead on goals by Nikita Gusev in the first and Vladimir Tkachyov, Gusev and Bogdan Kiselevich in the second. 

Finland got on the board in the final minute of the second with a goal by Mikko Rantanen to make it 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Mikko Lehtonen scored at 1:16 of the third to cut the lead to two. Veli-Matti Savinainen cut the lead to one at 5:29 of the third.

But Nikita Kucherov answered for Russia, scoring at 8:03 to restore the two-goal lead and stopping Finland's rally.

Ivan Provorov had two shots in 18:16 of ice time for Russia. Valtteri Filppula had an assist and one shot in 15:16.

Go to top button