4 Nations Face-Off: Top standouts as Sweden beats USA
It might have been meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but Sweden managed to take home a 2-1 victory over the United States to close out preliminary round 4 Nations Face-Off action in Boston.
The Americans already clinched a spot in the final on Thursday after beating Canada on Saturday. They’ll have a rematch with the Canadians at 8:00 PM ET from the TD Gardens.
The United States were missing key players, with Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy sitting with various ailments. Brady Tkachuk also left the game with an injury, leaving the team shorthanded for most of the night.
The Americans got the home crowd on their feet just 35 seconds into the fight. Chris Kreider beat Samuel Ersson with a wrister, giving USA the early advantage. But Sweden scored a pair of goals to close out the first period – Gustav Nyquist at 13:39 on an Erik Karlsson tip and Jesper Bratt with a wrister in the final minute of the first.
The game remained pretty status quo there, with solid defensive hockey at both ends. The Americans hit the posts on multiple occasions, but ultimately couldn’t get another shot past Ersson.
Here’s a look at the top performers on Monday night:
Sweden
#30 Samuel Ersson, G (Philadelphia Flyers): Ersson hadn’t played a game in 11 days, so asking him to come in and play an exceptional – albeit banged up – American team was quite something. The Flyers goalie wasn’t even supposed to play for the Swedes, but an injury to Jacob Markstrom earlier in February – plus illnesses to Filip Gustavsson and Linus Ullmark – put Ersson in the spotlight. It wasn’t the USA at its best, but he stood tall and delivered to give the Swedes something to cheer for.
#65 Erik Karlsson, D (Pittsburgh Penguins): Karlsson has been playing some prime hockey in recent days. He’s playing like he did in his Norris Trophy campaign a few years ago – so confident, quick and effective. It’s a totally different Karlsson from what we’ve seen in Pittsburgh this year.
#20 Joel Eriksson Ek, C (Minnesota Wild): JEEK didn’t get any points, but he had a great screen on the 2-1 goal and had a positive impact on the attack on both goals. He was Sweden’s best net-front player overall in this tournament – it felt like he was involved in most of the team’s most dangerous plays all tournament long. He deserved better.
USA
#21 Dylan Larkin, C (Detroit Red Wings): Play him more! Every single game, the puck has spent significantly more time in the offensive zone than the alternative. Larkin has had such a positive impact on this team, with his Corsi being completely on his side all night long. Larkin is USA’s secret weapon, and he’s going to be important in the final.
#20 Chris Kreider, LW (New York Rangers): From scoring in the first minute of the game to being an analytical darling, it was nice to see Kreider join in and have the impact he did in his first game of the tourney. He got plenty of ice time, too, as the Americans started to load-manage some of their better players.
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