Sweden, Japan Set To Play For Gold At The Youth Olympic Games

Sweden and Japan both won their semi-finals Tuesday to advance to the gold medal game of the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea.

Facing Germany in their semi-final, Sweden ran away with a 6-1 victory to secure their spot in the gold medal game. After Alva Vitalisson opened the scoring for Sweden in the first, a big second period secured the win for Tre Kronor. Second period markers from Tilde Grillfors, Nova Svanefjord, and Malva Lindgren sent Sweden to the third with a commanding 4-0 lead, where they continued to pour on the offense with Grillfors notching her second of the game, and Disa Carlsson also tallying. Germany would get one back late on the powerplay, but it would not be enough. Sweden held the play throughout the game outshooting Germany 40-12.

“The Swedes were a class better today and played a great game," said Germany's head coach Christoph Höhenleitner. "We also felt from the start that we were playing the third game in three days and that we were running out of things. But now it's time to focus entirely on the game for third place. We will prepare well and hopefully take home the bronze medal at the end.”

In the other semi-final, Japan played a tight fought game against Switzerland to earn their position in the gold medal game. Midway through the first period Switzerland's Norina Muller opened the scoring, but only 22 seconds later, Momona Fukuzawa got Japan on the board to tie the game.  Muller was a threat throughout the tournament and was one of Switzerland's top players earlier this month at the U-18 World Championships. In the second frame, Azumi Numabe gave Japan the lead, and they would not look back as netminder Suzuno Fukuda shut the door, and Japan's defense stifled Switzerland to hold on for the 2-1 win.

Heading into the gold medal game, Sweden will look to shut down the Japanese duo of Azumi Numabe and Umeka Odaira who each had three goals and seven points through three games. On the blueline Japan's top performer was Kika Terauchi who had four points in three games from the back end. For Sweden, defender Ebba Westerlind and Tilde Grillfors lead their team in scoring with five points each through three games. Other top performers for the Swedes include Matilda Osterman, Nova Svanefjord, and Tillie Ytfeldt. The two teams met in the preliminary round with Sweden beating Japan 2-1.

Switzerland and Germany will play for bronze, while Norway and France, the other nations to compete were eliminated from medal contention following the preliminary round.

The bronze is scheduled for 10:00am January 31, followed by the gold medal game at 4pm.

In the 3-on-3 competition, Hungary took the gold medal paced by captain Krisztina Weiler. They beat host South Korea 10-2 in the final. China beat Italy 8-7 for bronze.