North America wins, Sweden advances
TORONTO — Henrik Lundqvist made 45 saves and Sweden wrapped up the top seed in Group B and a spot in the World Cup of Hockey semifinals by reaching overtime in a 4-3 loss to Team North America on Wednesday.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the winner after back-and-forth 3-on-3 play. But Sweden got the point it needed to advance to the semifinals, while North America needs Finland to beat Russia on Thursday.
Facing 49 shots, Lundqvist was brilliant playing the second half of back-to-back games. Counting his shutout against Finland, “The King” has stopped 81 of 85 shots at the World Cup.
Auston Matthews, Vincent Trocheck and Johnny Gaudreau scored in regulation for North America. Filip Forsberg, Nicklas Backstrom and Patrik Berglund scored for Sweden.
Starting in place of Matt Murray, North America goalie John Gibson stopped 35 of 38 shots.
The game was considered an instant classic, a showcase of speed, skill, scoring and goaltending. North America is in a precarious spot as a result of its loss to Russia earlier in the week because head to head is the first tiebreaker. Winning in regulation would have gotten it through to the semis and left Sweden sweating out Russia’s game against Finland.
Sweden won the group with five points, while North America has four and would need Russia — which has two — not to beat Finland in any fashion. MacKinnon’s overtime goal, which came seconds after Gibson stopped Daniel Sedin on a breakaway, made it so that North America doesn’t need Finland to beat Russia in regulation.
Finland has been eliminated from contention.
North America scored on Lundqvist 30 seconds in as Connor McDavid fed Matthews for a highlight-reel goal and took a 2-0 lead 95 seconds in when Shayne Gostisbehere made a perfect pass to Trocheck in front. The teams traded goals the rest of the period as Sweden overcame its brutal start to claw back in the game.
Berglund had the goal in the third period that tied the score and sent the game to overtime. Sweden players said they knew they had to reach overtime to get into the semifinals.