It’s never dull when Sweden takes on Finland. On Tuesday at the IIHF World Championship in front of their home fans in Stockholm, the Swedes were dominant, outshooting the Finns 41-19 and controlling the game in terms of possession and zone time.

“I think this was by far our best game,” Filip Forsberg said after the game as reported by HockeyNews.se. “I don't know what the zone time was, but we probably had 60-70 percent of the time in the attacking zone. We’ll take that with us.”

In the end, however, Sweden had to hang on to win 2-1, thanks in large part due to the play of Finnish goaltender Juuse Saros, who is Forsberg’s teammate with the Nashville Predators. Forsberg was asked if he thought, given the wide edge in play, whether his team should have scored another goal or two.

“Yes, absolutely, but they had one of the best goalies in the world on the other side,” Forsberg said about Saros. “He was so good. He’s really the only reason it was still a game after two periods.

“He was standing on his head in goal.”

Filip Forsberg: ‘You Can Talk [Crap] About Austria As Much As You Want, But They’re Good’ After a dominant 5-0 win over Slovakia in their opening game of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, the Swedes had more trouble with their second game against Austria, needing a late comeback to win 4-2. Swedish media didn’t seem impressed with the team’s performance in the second game, but when asked about it Filip Forsberg was full of praise for the Austrian team.

The score was 2-0 after 40 minutes and the shots were 33-9. Then the Finns came with a push in the third period, which was to be expected, and scored once.

“Then it’s quite tight and you never know,” said Forsberg. “A random puck goes in and suddenly, it’s a game. You have to give credit to Juuse and to Finland for fighting on. A little more payoff (on our chances) and this game would have been over a little earlier.”

The Finnish goal with just under seven minutes remaining was a strange play that Forsberg was in the middle of. A quck whistle while the puck was still loose appeared to negate it, and a couple of Finnish players quickly charged towards the nearest referee to argue. However, Forsberg quickly intercepted Harri Pesonen and Eemil Erholtz, allowing the referee to escape.

“Yes, they were going to argue with the referee, so you have to protect them sometimes,” he said. “They do a good job out there so you gotta be there and ‘police’ a little sometimes.”

After a review, the goal was counted but it’s the only one Finland got.

Eeli Tolvanen's Late Surge Rescues Snake-Bitten Finns Last year, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/international/latest-news/olli-maatta-mikael-granlund-react-to-nervous-win-over-denmark">Finland barely made the IIHF World Championship quarterfinals</a> and the team’s first two games this year have not been especially reassuring to the team’s fans. Playing against Austria and France, teams that Finnish team in past years might have beaten easily, the Finns have managed wins of 2-1 and 4-3 in overtime.