🇸🇪 Sweden 2-1 United States 🇺🇸
Four Nations Face-Off Group Round
TD Garden, Boston 🇺🇸
Monday, 17 February 2025

Although Sweden knew prior to the game that it would not be able to advance to the championship of the Four Nations Face-Off, its players said they would still play with pride against the United States.

And that’s exactly what they did.

Gustav Nyquist and Jesper Bratt scored, and Samuel Ersson, who had been a healthy scratch for the first two games of the tournament, made 32 saves for Sweden (1-0-2-0) in a 2-1 win against the U.S. at TD Garden on Monday.

“It’s not easy to prepare for a game like this when you know you have nothing really to play for on the outside, but everyone in here is extremely proud to be a part of this team, to play for the national team, and the three crowns is one of the biggest privileges for all of us growing up to be able to be in this situation,” Sweden defenceman Erik Karlsson said. “Everyone in here did a (heck) of a job staying with it and doing everything we needed to do to try to win this game, and luckily after 60 minutes we did.”

Chris Kreider scored, and Jake Oettinger made 21 saves for the U.S. (2-0-0-1), which will play Canada in the championship game here on Thursday.

“We wanted to put on a better performance tonight. We wanted to give our fans a little more to cheer for,” U.S. forward Dylan Larkin said. “We lost some pretty good players tonight, but we stuck together and we battled. Hopefully we give (the fans) a lot to cheer for on Thursday.”

The U.S. dressed only 17 skaters, with defenceman Charlie McAvoy (upper body) and forwards Matthew Tkachuk (lower body) and Auston Matthews (upper body) missing the game because of injury.

Forward Brady Tkachuk then left at the start of the second period for the Americans. He appeared to sustain a lower-body injury at 5:12 of the first period when he lost an edge and crashed into Ersson and the right post.

“Charlie, right now he’s out with an upper-body injury. Auston was more banged up, or nicked up I should say,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ll probably have more information tomorrow with those guys.

“Brady had a lower-body injury and we kept him out more for precautionary reasons. I haven’t gotten an update to this point after the game yet, so we’ll see how he responds, but I don’t anticipate there being an issue.

“It’s not easy when we lose a guy that early in the game when we’re already down one. We tried to spread the minutes around a little bit so nobody got an extensive workload, but when you’re down two guys that early in the game, it is what it is. I thought the guys competed hard.”

Kreider, who was playing in his first game of the tournament, gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the first period. Zach Werenski skated into the offensive zone and cut inside on Sweden defenceman Gustav Forsling before getting a shot on the net from the bottom of the right circle. Ersson made the initial save, but the rebound popped right out to Kreider, who buried it into the open net.

“I thought (Kreider) played really well,” Sullivan said. “He scored a goal, but he did more than score goals. He can really skate, he has good size, he can kill penalties, he played on the power play. We played him with Jack Eichel and he was a good fit there. (Kreider) goes to the net. He’s good in the puck pursuit game and he can really skate. His north-south speed is a challenge for any opponent.”

Nyquist tied it 1-1 at 13:39. Following a sustained forecheck, Viktor Arvidsson gained control of the puck just inside the blue line and passed to Karlsson, whose shot from the right boards was redirected by Nyquist under Oettinger’s blocker.

Bratt gave Sweden a 2-1 lead at 19:04 of the first. William Nylander skated into the offensive zone with speed after intercepting a pass from Vincent Trocheck in the neutral zone. He then stopped at the outside edge of the left circle and fed Bratt, who turned as he was cutting through the zone and roofed a shot back across the grain over the glove of Oettinger.

“It’s obviously an honour,” Bratt said of playing in the Four Nations Face-Off. “Putting on this jersey is really special to me, and I know it is for everyone in here. We showed up and wanted to end this tournament in the best possible way for us. We knew this game didn’t mean a lot in this tournament, but for the guys in this room, and our country, it meant a lot to get that win.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
00:35 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Kreider (Werenski, Eichel)
07:57 – 🇸🇪 PEN – Lindholm, delay of game
10:03 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Boldy, interference
13:36 – 🇸🇪 GOAL – Nyquist (Karlsson, Arvidsson)
19:04 – 🇸🇪 GOAL – Bratt (Nylander)

2nd Period
24:00 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Hanifin, holding
30:42 – 🇸🇪 PEN – Forsberg, slashing

3rd Period
41:11 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Fox, cross checking
47:59 – 🇸🇪 PEN – Karlsson, high sticking

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇸🇪 Ersson (31-32)
L: 🇺🇸 Oettinger (21-23)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇸🇪 8+9+6 = 23
🇺🇸 13+8+11 = 32

ROSTERS
🇸🇪 Goaltenders: Samuel Ersson, Filip Gustavsson. Defence: Rasmus Andersson, Jonas Brodin, Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Ekholm, Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman (C), Erik Karlsson (A). Forwards: Viktor Arvidsson, Jesper Bratt, Leo Carlsson, Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Forsberg, Adrian Kempe, Elias Lindholm, William Nylander (A), Gustav Nyquist, Elias Pettersson, Lucas Raymond.
🇺🇸 Goaltenders: Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman. Defence: Brock Faber, Adam Fox, Noah Hanifin, Jake Sanderson, Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski. Forwards: Matt Boldy, Kyle Connor, Jack Eichel (A), Jake Guentzel, Jack Hughes, Chris Kreider, Dylan Larkin, J.T. Miller, Brock Nelson (A), Brady Tkachuk (A), Vincent Trocheck.

Article Credit: NHL
Photo Credit: San Francisco Chronicle – IIHF – HHOF – IOC