TORONTO — Team North America’s youthful exuberance helped bring out a side of Team Sweden we hadn’t yet seen at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The Swedes were on their heels, forced to be aggressive, and it was Sweden’s youngest player that led the charge in a valiant comeback effort against a team full of sprightly skaters.
Filip Forsberg, 22, was tremendous in his team’s 4-3 overtime loss and a key factor in why Sweden was able to clinch a spot in the tournament semifinals, locking up the top spot in Group B with the point they earned for reaching OT.
Wednesday’s contest wound up being modern classic, however it took half a period or so for Sweden to realize they were even in a hockey game. Thirty seconds into the opening frame, the ice still glistening from a recent zamboni job, the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews connected to put North America up 1-0. Twenty-six seconds later the young guns earned a penalty shot which Johnny Gaudreau flubbed, but on the very next shift Vincent Trocheck made it 2-0.
At one point the shots were 11-1, the score was 2-0 and the Swedes looked lost. Then Forsberg galvanized his team by ripping his first of the tournament past John Gibson.
Johnny Hockey made up for his failed penalty shot attempt, beating Henrik Lundqvist with a beautiful deke on a breakaway to make it 3-1, but Forsberg helped manufacture another goal that brought his country back to within one before the end of a wild opening 20 minutes.
“I have to say he reminds me a lot of Alex [Ovechkin] actually with his release,” Forsberg’s linemate Nicklas Backstrom, who scored Sweden’s second marker, said. “He loves shooting the puck, he loves going to the net, he loves creating stuff and in that way he reminds me a little bit of Ovie. He’s a talented kid. He’s been great in the NHL the last couple years and he’s going to be even better. He brings that enthusiasm.”
Forsberg is one of just two Swedish players coming off 30-goal campaigns in the NHL – Loui Eriksson is the other – and management had high expectations for the Nashville Predators star heading into the tournament.
“We know him very well. He’s been in our program since he was 15,” Sweden’s general manager Tommy Boustedt told Sportsnet prior to the tournament. “Our head coach Rikard Gronborg has been working with him since he was a kid. They know each other very well. He will become team captain of the national team [one day] because he always used to be captain in our junior national teams. He’s a very nice person. He’s the best goal scorer on our team.
“The fact he shoots right is beneficial as well since most Swedish players shoot left. He’s extra special not only because he’s an excellent goal scorer but he’s a right shooter. He’s a positive guy and makes his teammates better. He doesn’t suck energy, he gives energy to the group.”
With 22-year-old blue-liner Hampus Lindholm scratched, Forsberg and 23-year-old Gabriel Landeskog were the only two active Swedes in the same age group as the North American U-24s.
Landeskog also had a strong game, setting a nice screen in front of Gibson on Patrik Berglund‘s tip-in goal that tied things at 3.
The vets did their part when called upon too.
The Sedins had quality chances and Lundqvist made save after save to keep things from getting out of hand. He robbed Nathan MacKinnon on the doorstep early in the second then stoned both Connor McDavid and Mark Scheifele just seconds apart while shorthanded, and performed absolute larceny on McDavid again in overtime. Lundqvist made 45 saves before MacKinnon got his revenge in overtime.
For much of this game the North Americans were buzzing around the Swedes like flies they couldn’t swat away, but Forsberg matched that zeal every shift he was out there on the Air Canada Centre ice.
“Tremendous game,” coach Gronborg said of Forsberg’s performance. “I think it was nice for me to see him score, too. He had great opportunities. I think he had five shots in that last game and couldn’t get a goal, so it was nice for me to see him actually get a goal. I think that will be huge not only for himself but also as a team. We need him to produce. He’s that kind of a player.”
If Forsberg and Backstrom can continue their strong play it bodes well for Sweden in the semifinals.
“Our chemistry is just getting better and better every game and obviously we were able to score two goals today,” Forsberg. “Going further we want to keep getting better and keep improving.”
The fact Forsberg and Backstrom are playing so well together on Sweden and that Backstrom compares him to Ovechkin has to irk Washington Capitals fans, doesn’t it? Forsberg was drafted 11th overall by the Caps in 2012 but was sent to the Preds in April 2013 in one of the most lopsided, terrible trades in NHL history.
But I digress.
Sweden’s hockey program is in fine form both in present day and looking forward with Forsberg front and centre. In fact, with players like Forsberg, Landeskog, Lindholm, and with others like Adam Larsson, Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander on the rise, Sweden could probably put together quite the young guns team on its own.
“We would be a solid team,” Forsberg said with a smile. “There’s a lot of young guys on our team and a lot of young guys in the NHL and back home in Sweden as well that are waiting to get their chance so they would be a good team as well.”
It’s not Forsberg’s job to think about the future of Swedish hockey though. All he has to worry about is his nation’s semifinal matchup on the weekend.
If he plays like he did against North America, Sweden will have a strong shot at reaching the final.
