Europe Beats Sweden in Overtime to Advance to World Cup Finals

Team Europe will meet with Canada in the World Cup of Hockey finals after defeating Sweden in overtime 3-2.

With the Toronto Blue Jays in town to play the New York Yankees just down the street, as well as a slew of other major sporting events on television, the World Cup's second semi-final featured a very quiet crowd with little-to-no energy. Tickets were selling as low as $5 on the re-sale market before the game, but still struggled to bring in a crowd despite the fact that it was a semi-final game.

The on-ice product did very little to help the atmosphere in the first period, with Sweden leading in shots by a count of 10-5. Neither team had any real opportune chances in a game that saw Sweden take control of the puck for a good portion.

It took 2:31 in the first period for the first goal to get scored. Sweden, who featured better crowd support throughout the tournament, would take the 1-0 lead after Anton Stralman's shot was deflected away by Jaroslav Halak, only to be picked up by Nicklas Backstrom in front. Backstrom, who missed the final game of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi due to failing a drug test, was in perfect place to pick up the puck and score on the doorstep, giving the Tre Kronor the 1-0 lead.

With 3:33 left in the second, the Europeans got their best scoring chance of the game up to that point and made it count. Anze Kopitar made a good pass to Christian Ehrhoff at the goal line, who found Marian Gaborik in front. Gaborik was in a perfect spot for the goal, tapping it from in close for the 1-1 tie before the start of the third period.

Nobody expected the lead to change after just 12 seconds of play in the third. Shortly after the puck dropped, Andrej Sekera sent the puck to Tomas Tatar in front of the net, who backhanded in close to give themselves the 2-1 lead.

Europe's chances of moving on to an unexpected tournament final were getting better by the minute, but with five minutes to go, Sweden got the important tying goal. Erik Karlsson, one of the best two-way defenders in the game, fired the shot low blocker from the blue line to beat Halak and tie the game up in the dying minutes of play.

The goal forced just the third overtime game of the tournament, and it was a short one. Before the period was even in four minutes old, Tomas Tatar jammed home a goal in a rush to the net in close, giving Europe the shocking 3-2 victory after most people believed they had no chance prior to the tournament.
 
With the win, Europe will face Canada in a best-of-three final series to determine the winner. The finals will begin on Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM, with game two happening at the same time on Thursday. If needed, the series will wrap up at 7:00 PM on Saturday.

 

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