Finland Orchestrates Big Comeback Effort to Beat Sweden

After erasing a 3-0 deficit in the third period, Finland managed to beat Sweden 4-3 in a wild men's hockey overtime contest.

After erasing a 3-0 deficit in the third period, Finland managed to beat Sweden 4-3 in a wild overtime contest.

With the extra point, Finland has won Group C and will get an automatic berth into the quarterfinal later next week.

It was an uncharacteristic first 40 minutes for the Finns, who have typically been known for their disciplined game and taking advantage of other teams' inability to stay out of the box. But with six penalties in the first 40 minutes alone, Finland struggled to consistently play to their strengths.

It all started at 24:05 when Lucas Wallmark scored his fourth goal of the tournament with an in-close wrister that soared over goaltender Jussi Olkinuora. 

Less than a minute later, the Finns were dealt a big blow. Markus Granlund was ejected for an illegal hit to the head of Philip Holm, a hit that knocked the Swedish defender out of the game. On the ensuing five-minute power play, Lukas Bengtsson had his point shot go through and in for the 2-0 goal. Anton Lander added a third Swedish goal at 11:36 to seemingly put the game out of reach.

But of course, that wouldn't end up being the case.

Finland's third-period charge started with two power-play goals of their own to make things spicy. Teemu Hartikainen scored at 5:34 after quickly one-timing a feed from Sami Manninen to end Magnus Hellberg's shutout. Then, 10 minutes later, Iiro Pakarinen knocked in a bouncing puck off of Hartikainen's shot to cut the lead to one late in the game.

Then, for the first even-strength goal of the contest, Pakarinen rushed in on a scramble and poked the loose puck under the left pad of Hellberg at 57:11 to tie the game and force overtime. And that's when Harri Pesonen scored to complete the comeback, turning the game on its head after a one-sided first two periods in favor of Sweden.