Late goal gives Sweden the win against Russia

Sweden beat Russia to go through the group stage undefeated. The home team was in the lead for almost the entire game, but eight minutes before the end Mikhail Grigorenko tied it. The Swedes really wanted to end 2013 with a win and they got it at 57:38 when Jacob de la Rose got the game-winner with a deflection.

"We played well today and it felt all the time like we would win it", said de la Rose after the game. And about the winning goal: "I just tried to take position in front of the net and hit the puck".

Knowing they had to score a lot of goals today, Russia started attacking right from the starts. The Swedish players looked nervous the first few shifts and made some easy mistakes but the Russians couldn't take advantage of that.

Sweden got the first power-play after only 2:23 of play after Georgi Busarov checked Oskar Sundqvist from behind. They needed a little more than a minute before Sebastian Collberg found Andreas Johnson who made it 1-0 at 3:29.

The second Swedish power-play was not at all as good as the first. Or to be fair to Team Russia, their box did a splendid job. Just before the penalty was over Russia got yet another penalty. When Pavel Buchnevich returned to the ice after a few seconds he got a great chance on the break-away, but failed to convert it. In the continued man advantage Sweden couldn't create anything of danger.

After riding out the storm Russia got things going again. Their best chance came with four minutes remaining of the first as Damir Zhafyarov had a splendid chance to tie it after he skated past the Swedish defense but was denied by Oscar Dansk in the Swedish net.

A minute later Sweden got the 2-goal lead as Nick Sörensen scored on a pass from Lucas Wallmark behind the net. The shot luckily deflected off a Russian defender into the net.

During a delayed call 14 seconds before the buzzer, Jesper Pettersson should have made it 3-0 into the wide open net but he missed the puck.

"There was a slow whistle and the defensemen are supposed to approach the net. I'll have to try to bury it next time", he says.

Russia finally got its first power-play at 23:17. They had a whole bunch of scoring chances and eventually Alexander Barabanov got the puck past Dansk for the first Russian goal.

The second period was intense with scoring chances in both directions. Nick Sörensen had a hard shot off the crossbar and on the rebound Russia got a counter attack in which Russia's youngest player almost scored. Just after that Vasilevsky robbed Sweden from a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal as he made an incredible save. A shot from Russian defenseman Andrei Mironov deflected off a Swedish player and then hit the post with a minute to go.

Also in the third period Russia started with full speed ahead. But Sweden soon took over the initiative until Andreas Johnson got a penalty for crashing into Vasilevsky fro from the play.

During the Russian power-play that followed Sweden had no problems keeping the Russians away from the net except for a couple of long shots that were no trouble for Dansk.

Vadim Khlopotov had a great chance to tie it when he was all alone with Dansk, but he gained no control of the puck.

With eight minutes to go Russia tied it on the power-play. Grigorenko somehow managed to get it into the net after a failed shot by Pavel Buchnevich.

"I wasn't afraid even when they tied it", says Nick Sörensen. "It was our game".

It was obvoius that the home team really wanted the winning goal in this game. The final minutes were really intense. At 57:38 they got it. Jacob de la Rose deflected a shot from Gustav Olofsson past Vasilevsky.

Filip Forsberg nearly buried an empty-net goal in the final seconds from sharp angle, but he missed and the game ended 3-2 Sweden.

In the quarter final Sweden will play Slovakia who lost to Czech Republic today.

"It will be fun to play. I haven't played against Slovakia so many times so I don't know much about them", says Sörensen.

Sweden's Anton Karlsson didn't play today's game due to a minor penalty but he is expected to be back in the line-up for the quarter final.

Russia will play the loser of tonight's game USA-Canada.

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