Shootout win for Sweden against Switzerland

29 Dec 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Lukas Meili in the Swiss net makes 50 saves when Switzerland steals a point from Sweden after a heroic finish.

Sweden had a 3-1 lead but Switzerland got the game to overtime after late goals by Joel Vermin and Dean Kukan. The overtime period was almost entirely played in the Swiss zone but the Swedes couldn't beat Lukas Meili until the shootout. There both Sebastian Collberg and Max Friberg scored while Joel Vermin and Christoph Bertschy failed to beat the Swedish goalie Johan Gustafsson.

Switzerland was outshot 27-54 and Meili in the net made 50 saves. Sweden's goalie Gustafsson played better than in the opening game against Latvia and made 24 saves.

Max Friberg opened the scoring for Sweden at 14:23 when he was all alone between the circles on the first Swedish power play. This was his 5th goal of the championship. Joel Vermin was close to tying the game just a few seconds later but missed the opportunity. Instead he got his goal five minutes into the middle period when he scored a power play goal. Sweden had tried a counter-attack and lost both forwards in the attacking zone. Switzerland used a 3-on-2 opportunity in the other direction and tied the game.

Sweden got the lead back at 36:11 when Mattias Bäckman took a hard shot from the blue line and Joakim Nordström deflected it past Lukas Meili in the Swiss net. Meili had a terrific second period with a number of huge saves. Sweden outshot Switzerland 19-6 in the second period but the Swiss team played better than in the first period, especially during the first 15 minutes.

The 3-1 goal came at 41:56 when Erik Thorell found Ludvig Rensfeldt close to the net with a backhand pass from the corner.

Sweden appeared to have control of the game but Switzerland got a 2-man advantage and Joel Vermin scored his second goal of the game. The Swedes played nervously in the final minutes of regulation and with 2:04 remaining Dean Kukan tied the game.

"We need to learn to play with the lead", says Swedish head coach Roger Rönnberg to SVT after the game. "We played a great first half of the game, according to the plan. But then it changed".