Susanna Tapani scored the go-ahead goal just past the midway mark after the Swedes fought back from a two-goal first-period deficit. The Finns, who won the bronze medal at both the 2022 Olympics and 2024 Women’s Worlds, outshot their Nordic archrivals 25-12.
“I think we have grown during this tournament, and this was our best game so far,” Tapani said. “This is what we needed. We need to get better in the next one. But I’m pretty happy for for what we did today.”
Jenniina Nylund and Ronja Savolainen also scored for coach Juuso Toivola’s squad, and Julia Liikala chipped in two assists.
Ebba Hedqvist and Josefin Bouveng replied for Sweden, which topped Group B with a perfect record but didn’t have enough offensive punch on Thursday to put this one away. The Swedes will play in the fifth-place game on Saturday.
“It’s the first time I’ve been here and we won the group and didn’t have to play USA or Canada. so I think this is another step forward,” Bouveng said. “But it’s also hard because we’ve beaten Finland several times. They’ve beaten us too, but we know we can win this game, and we just didn’t today.”
Finnish starting goalie Sanni Ahola made 10 saves for the win, while Swedish netminder Emma Soderberg had 22 stops.
The unusual 10:00 am start didn’t seem to trouble the Finns. They carried the early play and disrupted Swedish breakouts. Nylund drew first blood at 8:35, looping into the left faceoff circle and beating Soderberg high to the glove side.
“I was kind of surprised with the space I got up there,” said Nylund, a self-described “early bird” who didn’t mind the start time. “I saw that there was traffic in front of the net, and I could see a hole in there. I just tried to get it through, and I was happy to see it go in.”
Savolainen doubled the Finnish lead at 17:15, waltzing in from the centre point and scoring on a quick wrister. The Ottawa Charge blueliner, competing in her ninth Women’s Worlds, leads all tournament defenders with three goals.
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FINLAND V. SWEDEN
GAME HIGHLIGHTS | CONDENSED GAME
Just 50 seconds into the second period, Sweden pushed back with an opportunistic…
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