The Karjala Cup and the 2024-25 Euro Hockey Tour opened on Thursday with Czechia beating Sweden in regulation time and Finland coming back to beat Switzerland in overtime. On Saturday, the four teams were in action again, with Switzerland beating Sweden in a shootout and Finland shutting out Czechia.

As a result, Finland leads with five points, followed by Switzerland and Czechia with three each and Sweden with one. The tournament finishes on Sunday in Helsinki with the Czechs against the Swiss, followed by Finland and Sweden.

Sweden 3 – Switzerland 4 [SO] (1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

In the first period, it was Switzerland scoring first and in the second it was Sweden, with both goals answered. Early in the third period, Sven Andrighetto’s second goal of the game on the power play gave the Swiss the lead again, but Emil Pettersson replied for Sweden four minutes later.

After a scoreless overtime, the Swiss won in a shootout as Damian Riat and Théo Rochette both scored and Gilles Senn stopped all four Swedish shooters. This result ended a 16-game winning streak for Sweden against Switzerland, dating back to April 2016. 

The shots on goal were 29-29 through 65 minutes of hockey with goalies Senn and Jacob Johansson each making 26 saves. Both Andrighetto goals were assisted by Denis Malgin. Oskar Lang had a goal and an assist for Sweden.

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Finland 4 – Czechia 0 (2-0, 1-0, 1-0)

In a dominant performance, the Finns outshot the Czechs 34-20 and took control of the game with two first-period goals, then cruised to a 4-0 win in front of 7,114 appreciative fans.

Harri Pesonen, who scored once on Thursday, added two more against the Czechs. He opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the slot less than five minutes in, then made it 3-0 on a power play just shy of the game’s midpoint. Toni Rajala had a goal and an assist and Emil Larmi made 20 saves for the shutout.

“They were faster, on the puck before us and still had excellent skills at that speed – they were a very difficult opponent for us,” Czech coach Radim Rulik said about the Finns. “If we’d handled the puck better, we wouldn’t have given them chances to force us into mistakes and benefit from it. But the Finns were simply excellent.” 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyqQCS5RzTU[/embed]