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Sweden Takes Day 3 Opener Over Switzerland; Czechia Tops Finland
Czechia blanks Finland; Sweden tops Switzerland in OT
PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Games wrapped on day three of the 2024 Under-18 Five Nations Tournament from USA Hockey Arena as Switzerland fell just short of completing a comeback as they fell 6-5 (OT) to Sweden in the first game of the day. In Game 2, Czechia pulled out the first shutout of the week as they blanked Finland, 5-0.
SWEDEN 6, SWITZERLAND 5 (OT)
Sweden scored the lone goal of the first period, just 53 seconds in, at the hands of Alfons Freij, who was set up by Melvin Fernström and Alexander Zetterberg.
The Swedes doubled their lead as Anton Frondell scored with a picture-perfect wraparound play at the 11:20 mark. Freij and Felix Öhrqvist picked up helpers on the play. Viggo Nordlund made it a 3-0 game with 3:47 to play off a move by Freij for his third point of the night. Milton Gästrin picked up a point with the secondary.
Gabriel Eliasson added a fourth to the Swedish tally 21 seconds into the third with Leo Sahlin Wallenius and 18 Victor Eklund credited with helpers.
Loris Wey finally broke through just under three minutes later, set up by Alessio Guignard, then Robin Antenen cut the Swedish lead in half 1:17 later. Wey and Jamiro Reber earned points on the play as well. Janis Weber made it a 4-3 game with anther Swiss tally, but Måns Toresson regained the two-goal lead for the Swedes.
A power-play marker from Reber brought Switzerland back within one with 3:04 to play, then Swiss netminder Phileas Lachat headed to the bench in the final 2:00 for the extra attacker.
It took just 24 seconds to tie the game, as Wey capitalized on the man-up advantage off a puck from Mischa Geisser to force overtime.
Zetterberg was awarded a penalty shot 18 seconds into extra time and deked out Lachat to pick up Sweden's third win in as many games.
Freij was named the Player of the Game for Team Sweden, while Wey earned the honors for Team Czechia.
Axel Nyman finished with 21 saves in the Swedish net to pick up the win, improving Team Sweden's record to 1-2-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L), while Lachat had 19 stops as the Swiss fell to to a 0-0-1-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record in tournament play.
CZECHIA 5, FINLAND 0
The game was knotted at zero after the opening 20, as Kim Saarinen stopped all 10 shots he faced in the Finnish net and Břetislav Vystrčil had 10 saves for the Czechs.
Petr Sikora broke the ice 6:19 into the middle frame with a wrister from the top of the right circle on the power play. The Czechs doubled their lead two minutes later as Radim Mrtka found teammate Tomas Poletin in the crease, who chipped it past Kim to go bar down. Adam Novotny made it a 3-0 game at the 14:44 minute mark, capitalizing on a wide open cage after being slid the puck by Adam Benak. Adam Klimek added a fourth with 2:28 left in the period of a feed from Richard Zemlicka. Klimek maneuvered past his defender in order to slip it past the Finnish netminder.
Benak scored what could be the goal-of-the-tournament with a between-the-legs shot on a breakaway to extend the lead to the eventual 5-0 final.
Vystrcil finished with 20 saves for the first shutout of the tournament.
Finland's Sebastian Soini and Czechia's Vystrcil were named each team's Player of the Game.
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