Rangers prospects eliminated as Russia beats Sweden in OT

The game

Sweden scored just 16 seconds into the game when defenseman Rasmus Sandin put a slapshot past Russian goalie Yaroslav Askarov. The Swedes gave up the lead when they took a penalty and Russia scored on the power play.

The game took a serious turn for the Swedes when their most creative forward, Nils Hoglander, was ejected from the game and given a five minute major penalty for a headshot to Gregori Denisenko.  While the IIHF is taking headshots very seriously, they do not have anything similar to the NHL’s concussion protocol.  Denisenko was treated by an icepack to the head on the bench.

The Russians scored once on the five minute major and added a third goal on an egregious giveaway by Swedish goalie Hugo Alnefelt.  He came out of the net to try to clear the puck, but wasn’t able to get much on the puck and Yegor Sokolov was able to score.

The Swedes began their comeback with the Fagemo goal, set up by Nils Lundkvist with five minutes left in the first period.

The Swedes continued their strong play into the second period,  tying the score on Rasmus Sandin’s second goal of the game and took the lead on Lundkvist’s power play tally at 4:25 of the third period.  Lundkvist’s goal chased Askarov from the game as we he was replaced by Amir Miftakhov.  With about 12 minutes left in the game, Russia tied the game on Sokolov’s second straight goal.

The game went to overtime and each team exchanged chances, but the Russians took advantage of a Swedish change to break into their zone and  Ivan Mortozov scored the game winner.

If anyone doesn’t believe that Sweden is snakebit in this tournament, look at this play.

https://twitter.com/IIHFHockey/status/1213473184806326277

Russia will take on either Canada or Finland in the gold medal game that is being played this afternoon.