Last-minute comeback got Sweden bronze

The Scandinavian clash for bronze brought a fast-paced battle from the very first seconds. Surrounded by the typical Břeclavian fog, it was Otto Heinonen who rushed from the bench in the 5th minute, received a fantastic pass from Jani Nyman in the open space, and did not give the Gustaf Albihn a chance. The Swedes, however, were determined to do something with such a bad start and started to pressurize Finland. Their efforts climaxed in the 13th minute when they got to play a power-play and although they could not score yet in this two-minute man advantage, shortly after the Finns were back at full strength, Tim Almgren brilliantly toe-dragged the puck around Rasmus Vuorinen and put the puck right by the near post to send both teams in the locker rooms tied.

The first goal of the second period came even quicker than what was the case in the first period. Just slightly after three minutes passed, Tommi Männistö showed his speed, blazed through the left-hand side and from almost the goal line shot precisely in the top corner. Tre Kronor then committed two fouls in a pretty short span and spent a solid portion of the period short-handed. However, they not only killed both penalties successfully, but were also very close to their second goal when Noah Östlund broke away. Nevertheless, his attempt to beat Kokko through the fifth hole was denied by the Finnish goaltender. But when the Swedes got their chance to play a power-play, they immediately took advantage. Just four seconds after their man advantage started, the puck bounced very luckily on the tape of Filip Bystedt who only had to tap the puck into the open net. However, Finland had the last word as just 50 seconds before the intermission, Joakim Kemmel finished a nice one-touch combination on a power-play to put his team back ahead.

The Finns had the upper hand in the third period as well and kept their opponents at a safe distance from the net. As the time progressed, the game started to heat up rapidly and both teams laid bodies heavily and frequently. But the Finnish dream was about to get crushed violently. Just six minutes before the end of the game, Finland was still up ahead by one goal but then committed a foul which the Swedes punished severely. It took Tim Almgren only seven seconds to hit the top-shelf to get his second goal of the game and tie the score. Suomi pushed hard to get the lead back and was very close to doing so in the last minute, however, their pressure ended in a disaster. Not only did the Finns not score, but on the fast counter-attack Sweden got the puck to Rasmus Rudslätt who steam-rolled on the right side and passed the puck to Elias Samuelsson. The Swedish defenseman then perfectly found Fabian Wagner who tapped the puck in the net and just 28 seconds before the end of the game decided that Sweden would amazingly win the bronze medals.