Hard-earned win for Sweden

There were many bids for 2-2 in the final minutes but Sweden with Oscar Dansk in the net got away with a 2-1 win to advance to the final. Filip Forsberg and Oskar Sundqvist had given Sweden a 2-0 lead and Damir Zhafyarov made it 2-1. The third period was very intense with a lot of pressure towards the Swedish net. Russia pulled Vasilevski and got a late power-play, but Sweden kept the lead till the end.

"They came to this game with a higher speed", says Andreas Johnson about the Russian opponents. "But it felt like we had the control during all the game".

Malmö Arena was sold out again and the crowd was really into the game. "This is the greatest thing I ever experienced", says Sweden's Anton Karlsson who was back in the line-up after an upper-body injury.

The quality of the Swedish passing game was what it was in the previous games. It looked very nervous. Instead it was Russia who had improved their game a lot since last time the teams played four days earlier.

Russia had a couple of bids for 1-0 already in the first minute but Oscar Dansk was wide awake right from the start. After 56 seconds Russia got the first power-play. Sweden managed to kill it but shots on goal were 5-0 Russia after the first three minutes.

The first Swedish shot nearly resulted in a goal but Vasilevsky made a nice glove save on Filip Forsberg's shot.

Vasilevski holds the puck.

Russia owned the first period. They were of great danger to Oscar Dansk all the time while the Swedes only had a few random chances. It evened out towards the end and eventually Russia got a couple of penalties and Filip Forsberg scored 1-0 assisted by Elias Lindholm at 19:11.

At 1:38 of the second period Russia got a great chance to tie it. A stick got stuck in Robin Norell's skate and he fell to give Mikhail Grigorenko the big opportunity. He missed though.

Just a few seconds before the end of the period Elias Lindholm's stick bounced up from Valeri Vasiliev's stick to his face and Lindolm got a double minor penalty for high-sticking.

Sweden managed to kill the Russian four-minute power-play that opened the third period and even didn't let the Russians to take a single shot on goal. A minute later Linus Arnesson from the defensive zone found Orkar Sundqvist with a long pass and Sundqvist was all alone from the blue-line. He made no mistake and beat Vasilevski for 2-0.

Russia got a goal at 26:37 with a bit of luck. A Swedish play was stopped by the linesman's skate and the Swedes couldn't help Dansk as Damir Zhafyarov beat him at the first post from wide angle.

Dansk allowed one goal and was named best Swedish player.

The goal got the Russians going again and 2-2 wasn't far away. The best of a bunch of Russian chances was when Anton Slepyshev hit the post.

A minute and ten seconds before the end Russia pulled Vasilevsky for an extra attacker and even got to play 6-on-4 for the final seconds. But no more goals were scored and Sweden made in to the final.

"Of course we also had been sad if we had lost, but I don't think we would have started a fight", said Christian Djoos.

"It's sad. You just want to celebrate", said Linus Arnesson. "It was really nice to beat Russia again. We beat them also last year in the semi final and after last game we knew that the really wanted to beat us".

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