Traditionally, a playoff tilt between the Nordic archrivals is tight and tense. Thursday’s late game at a packed Metro Areena was no exception. Stiff bodychecks and shouts of joy and rage kept the atmosphere jacked up all night long.
Jack Berglund scored the second-period go-ahead goal for Sweden, and Alfons Freij also had a goal. Sweden now gets a chance to go for its third gold medal all-time (2019, 2022).
Heikki Ruohonen replied for Finland.
Finland’s elimination extends its gold-medal drought. The Finns last won U18 gold in 2018. Their last medal was 2022’s bronze. They also lost in last year’s quarter-finals, 3-2 to Slovakia.
Swedish goalie Love Harenstam won his duel with Finland’s Petteri Rimpinen as shots favoured Sweden 24-22.
The Swedes besieged the hosts early on. Rimpinen alertly denied Berglund from the high slot, but couldn’t track Freij’s long shot through traffic off a draw in the Finnish zone, which made it 1-0 Sweden at 2:40.
The Espoo fans resolutely chanted “Suomi!” as their team settled down. The Finns tried to reassert themselves physically, but Ruohonen wound up in the box after throwing his shoulder into Swedish defenceman Gabriel Eliasson away from the puck on the forecheck.
Rimpinen had to be sharp, including robbing Lucas Pettersson twice in rapid succession, or the Swedish lead could have been bigger. First-period shots were only 10-9 Sweden, but the blue-and-yellow team had more from prime scoring area.
Tension mounted as the second period turned into a defensive struggle. The Finns finally made it 1-1 at 9:09 on an exciting line rush. Blazing down the middle, Tuomas Suoniemi fed the puck left to Ruohonen, who squeezed the puck through Harenstam’s five-hole.
Finland squandered a chance to take the lead when Markus Loponen had a wide-open net off a Ruohonen rebound but couldn’t put the puck in.
Moments later, Berglund put Sweden up 2-1 when he cut to the middle and surprised Rimpinen with a long rising shot at 16:34.
There was no backing down in the third period, as Sweden’s Mans Toresson and Finland’s Onni Amhandi showed in a wrestling match by Rimpinen’s net.
The Finns kept coming close. With under nine minutes left in regulation, Roope Vesterinen swiped a rebound from captain Aron Kiviharju’s point shot wide. Joona Saarelainen couldn’t cash in a nice chance off the rush moments later.
Both…
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