Finland didn't get its long-awaited revenge on Sweden, but a 4-4 tie was good enough to win the European Pool at the World Cup of Hockey on Saturday.
The Nordic archrivals, who had clinched home-ice advantage in the quarterfinals before the game, both finished unbeaten with five points. The Finns earned the top-seeded spot on goal difference.
"Our start was strong, but Sweden is a world-class team with a truckload of skill, and they started to score on the power-play, so the game was soon a new one," said Finland captain Saku Koivu, who scored one goal. "But we gritted ourselves to the end.
"Our puck control was not as good as against the Czechs, but we managed to hold our own in front of our goal. Our power play has to get better."
Finland now faces Germany, which lost all three round-robin games, in the last eight on Monday, while Sweden gets an improving Czech Republic team on Tuesday.
Tomas Holmstrom scored a power-play goal with just 11 seconds left in regulation, forcing a five-minute overtime period that was scoreless. The closest any team came to score in OT was a shot by a Finn that hit the post of the empty Swedish net.
Sweden goalie Mikael Tellqvist had been pulled 38 seconds into the extra period, but the gamble didn't pay off.
Finland, which blew a 5-1 lead and lost 6-5 to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2003 world championship in the same arena, never trailed in the game before a crowd of 12,948 at Hartwall Arena.
Tellqvist gave up two goals during the first four minutes before the boisterous flag-waving crowd that also included a few thousand Swedish fans.
Ville Peltonen, a former NHL player in the Swiss League, scored just 1:39 in and Ossi Vaananen added a power play-goal at 4:34.
Fredrik Modin of Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning scored the first of his two goals on the power play at 12:27 to cut the lead to 2-1.
It was the first goal Finnish goalie Miikka Kiprusoff conceded in more than 132 minutes of tournament play. "Kipper," who backstopped the Calgary Flames to within a whisker of the Stanley Cup last season, shut out the Czechs (4-0) and the Germans (3-0) in the first two games.
Koivu restored the Finns' two-goal cushion just 19 seconds later after Modin's goal.
Canada 3, Russia 1
Martin Brodeur made 27 saves, and Brad Richards, Kris Draper and Joe Sakic scored goals to help Canada beat Russia 3-1 on Saturday in the World Cup of Hockey, giving the Canadians a 3-0 record in round-robin play.
Canada will play the last-place team in the North American pool in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night in Toronto.
Richards opened the scoring with a short-handed goal early in the second period, and Draper made it 2-0 just 1:37 later. Sakic scored early in the third period, and Russia's Sergei Gonchar completed the scoring midway through the period.
"We did what we have to do," Draper said. "We're 3-0, but we have to realize that we need to get better. It's do or die from here."
Russia (1-1) will complete play in the four-team pool Sunday night in Toronto against Slovakia (0-2). The US (1-2) finished pool play Friday night .
Brodeur stopped Alexander Frolov in alone on a two-on-one in the second period and twice thwarted Alexei Yashin coming out of the corner on a third-period shift.
RSS