Sweden Gets Slammed By Czechia, Canada loses to Switzerland in semi-final shootout

Sweden once again followed their trend in international tournaments, being impressive in the preliminary rounds and falling short when the pressure is on. The Swedes went 7-0 in the round-robin portion of the 2024 IIHF World Championships, but barely squeaked by Finland in a 2-1 overtime victory in the quarter-final on Thursday and got hammered 7-3 by host Czechia in the semi-final.

Rasmus Dahlin led Tre Kronor in ice time and had an assist, but was -3 in the contest, while Victor Olofsson went scoreless in just over 12 minutes of ice time.

In the other semi-final, heavily favored Canada fell behind Switzerland 2-0 in the first period on goals by Kevin Fiala and Nino Neiderreiter, but Brandon Tanev narrowed the gap in the second and Toronto’s John Tavares scored with 2:07 left to force overtime. After the 10-minute extra frame, the squads went to a shootout, and Sven Andrighetto beat Jordan Binnington to give the Swiss a 3-2 victory.

Sabres defenseman Owen Power played 22:45 in the game and assisted on the Tavares tying power-play goal, while Dylan Cozens led Canada in ice time with 22:47, but Swiss goalie Leonardo Genoni thwarted both in the shootout. Bowen Byram had one shot on goal in 18:26 in the loss.

Canada will take on Sweden in the bronze medal game on Sunday afternoon, while Czechia will face Switzerland in the gold medal game on Sunday night.

It was also a clean slate in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final on Friday, as ex-Sabres Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Dmitry Kulikov, and Brandon Montour were blanked in a 2-1 New York Rangers overtime victory over the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden.