Austria was so close to getting their own Miracle on Ice but Sweden scored twice within 12 seconds with less than three minutes remaining and added an empty-netter to win the game 4-2.
Mika Zibanejad scored twice for Sweden, including the game winner. Benjamin Baumgartner and Marco Kasper scored for Austria, and David Kickert made 20 saves.
"I'm super happy and relieved," said Zibanejad. "We knew it'd be a diffcult game and that they would be dangerous if we made mistakes. But, two games and two wins, we shouldn't be too critical, either."
“In the end, their quality took over. We kept them busy for a long time, but not long enough,” said Austria's Lukas Haudum.
To say that Sweden was the favorite would be an understatement. Not only had Sweden won all nine IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship games between the teams in the 2000s, but they had also done so in a comfortable fashion, with a 56-9 goal difference. In 2023, when the teams last met, Sweden went home with a 5-0 win. In fact, Austria’s last win over Tre Kronor dates back to February 1947.
But all that is ancient history, as was Austria’s 2-1 loss to the Finns yesterday, and as they say, “that’s why we play the games.”
Austria showed early on that they had come to play. Their loss to Finland was also just a memory as they created several great scoring chances in the first five minutes of the game. A Swedish penalty kill woke up the host team and shift by shift, they took over the game in the first period.
Five minutes into the second period, Austria’s transition game clicked perfectly. Vinzenz Rohrer chipped the puck out of the Austrian zone to send Thomas Raffl and Benjamin Baumgartner on a 2-on-1. Austrian captain Raffl short a smart snapshot which forced Ersson to leave a rebound and Baumgartner fired it top shelf to give Austria a lead in the game at 5.30.
Sweden tied the game on power play, their third of the game. Mika Zibanejad and Erik Gustafsson passed the puck between themselves on the blue line, and Zibanejad fired a wrister from the high slot, and it beat Kickert on the glove side at 13.26. Marcus Johansson was also credited with an assist.
Sweden fully controlled the game in the third period and even got another power play opportunity halfway through the period, but … Austria killed the penalty and struck back. A rare 3-on-2 resulted in a nice give-and go between Marco Kasper and Rakon Schnetzer and Kasper could give Austria a 2-1 lead in the game with only 7.34 remaining.
Sweden peppered Kickert with shots for the remainder of the game and coach Sam Hallam pulled the goalie with three minutes remaining. With 2.19 on the clock, Jonas Brodin fired a slap shot from the blueline that beat the Austrian goalie.
And just twelve seconds later Zibanejad one-timed a slapper from the slot and made it 3-2 for the hosts.
"They played a solid game. They played with a lot of passion and pride, and they played it tight in the D-zone. Of course that third period comeback is something for us to build on," said Sweden's Lucas Raymond.
Alexander Wennberg added an empty-netter to make it 4-2.
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