Three Wild players came up big for their respective country in the 4 Nations opening game.
The 4 Nations Tournament is officially underway. Sweden faced Canada on Wednesday which turned out to be one of the most exciting professional hockey games in a while.
Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin opened the scoring for Sweden which made it a 2-1 game in the second period.
Brodin, 31, became just the fourth Swedish defensemen to score a "Best-on-Best" goal vs Canada. He joins Kenny Jonsson (2002 Olympics 1st round), Nicklas Lidstrom (1998 Olympics 1st round) and Tommy Albelin (1996 World Cup Semi-Final) as the only four defensemen to reach this accomplishment.
The Wild defender finished the night with a goal, one shot, one blocked shot and two hits on 17:13 of ice time. He did not record a shift in the overtime and Sweden lost.
Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek tied the game for Sweden in the third period with his first goal of the tournament. His goal eventually forced overtime. Eriksson Ek finished with one goal, one shot and three hits on 17:04 of ice time.
Lastly, Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson kept Sweden in it the whole game. He finished the night with 24 saves on 28 shots and a few great-a chances that he stopped.
Gustavsson had an unreal save on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews in the third period which kept the game 3-3.
But, Canada ended up winning it in overtime after Mitch Marner used Erik Karlsson as a screen to beat Gustavsson.
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