Sweden edge past Switzerland in overtime to take 5th place
Aug 4, 2023 | Adam Chawner
Sweden and Switzerland both gave it their all, but it was ultimately the Scandinavians who came out on top of this thrilling game for 5th place, meaning Switzerland, who beat Slovakia and Finland in this year’s edition, will have to make-do with 6th. Linus Eriksson scored the game-winner just 35 seconds into overtime of the game that saw the Swiss drop a promising 2-0 lead.
A goalless first period proved just how important this game, despite being only a placement-decider, was for the two teams that both narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals. The Swedes and the Swiss both scored six points in the group stage, which would usually be enough to put them through to the semis, but they were both the odd team out on three-way tiebreakers.
The first goal of the game came in the second period when Switzerland’s Jordan Forget scored on the powerplay to make it 1-0 for the team donning red and white. The Swiss then went two goals up just 11 seconds later when David Bosson was on the right end of a Noe Tarchini pass.
The team in blue and yellow took some time to retaliate, but once they got into the groove of things, they made it count. Mans Toressons scored the first and Hugo Zetterlund scored the equaliser as the four-goal second period gradually came to its conclusion with the score locked at 2-2.
Third-period action got straight underway with no team wasting any time with pleasantries. The puck went from end to end but neither team were able to get the go-ahead goal and with 60 minutes of game time up, the game headed to overtime.
Just 35 seconds into overtime, Djurgården U20 player Linus Eriksson scored the game-winner, sealing 5th place for Sweden and pushing Switzerland down to 6th.
Reactions
Johan Rosén (Sweden): I think our players were mentally stil a bit in the game against Czechia. A lot of people in the stands and everything around, it gives you extra push. So today we needed more time to adapt. We were 0:2 down, but the guys worked very hard to win this game. Some of the lower ranked guys stepped up and did a great job, also scoring some goals. We won three games in this tournament and lost only one, so we are not happy about the result. But we are satisfied with our wins, we just need to be more solid.
Patrick Schöb (Switzerland): It was an even game. A classic 5–6th place game – both teams would have like to play the semifinals. But we tried to do our best to have a good game against Sweden. In the end, it was a bad luck for us. But overall, I think for sure we showed that we can play against any opponent. Canada was a better team but we had very good games against Finland and Slovakia. Today it was also very close. We showed good team performance, even though we are not happy with the ending and result, being 6th out of 8 teams.
In brief
Pre-tournament games
21.6. - The final pre-tournament games will be played on Saturday, 29th July. The Czech Republic will host Canada in Břeclav at 18:30 CET, 12:30 ET. Meanwhile, Slovakia will host the USA in Trenčín at 17:00 CET. Coverage of these games will be available at eurolivescores.com/.
Instagram of HGC
1.6. - The official instagram of Hlinka Gretzky Cup is availible here.
Interested in history?
6.2. - Do you know who won the Cup last year? Which team has won the most gold medals? HERE you can review the history.
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