Canucks: Pettersson’s Sweden eliminates Hronek’s Czechia from IIHF World Championship

Calgary Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson takes an intentional wide shot, which Carlsson is able to deflect past Vejmelka to put the Swedes up 1-0.

Less than five minutes later, Sweden built on their lead:

After a misplay in the neutral zone by Czechia, Washington Capitals defenceman Rasmus Sandin pokes the puck up the ice for Detroit Red Wings winger Lucas Raymond to skate onto. Raymond picks up the puck with speed and a lot of room in front of him and makes no mistake in doubling the Swedes’ lead.

But Raymond wasn’t done there:

In the final minute of the opening frame, Sandin sends a two-line pass up to Raymond just outside the offensive blueline. He walks in the zone and makes a nice cutback move to find the middle of the ice and rips his second wristshot goal of the game. The Swedes head into the locker room with a 3-0 lead after the first period.

Czechia made a goaltending switch for the second period, drawing in Calgary Flames backup goalie Dan Vladar.

The Swedes got into some penalty trouble to open the second period. Andersson took a tripping penalty 1:05 into the period, and Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund took a delay of game penalty at the 2:53 mark. This gave the Czechs a 5-on-3.

And with one second remaining on the two-man advantage, Roman Cervenka got his nation on the board:

After an offensive zone faceoff win, Hronek sends the puck over to Pastrnak, who does a give-and-go with Cervenka before ripping a one-timer on net. A juicy rebound kicks out right to Colorado Avalanche winger Martin Necas, and instead of shooting the puck on net, he sends a slap pass back to Cervenka, who has the entire net to shoot at.

This gave the Czechs life…for just over 10 minutes before the Swedes retook their three-goal lead:

A pass off the wall by Pettersson leads to a rush chance for the Swedes. New York Rangers centreman Mika Zibanejad leaves the puck for Minnesota Wild winger Marcus Johansson, who enters the zone with speed before dropping the puck back to Zibanejad. He cuts to the middle with a silky move to his backhand before sending a backhand pass of his own to Carlsson in the slot, who fires a snapshot behind Vladar for his second of the game.

The Swedes took a 4-1 lead heading into the final break.

Czechia would cut the lead to two halfway through the third period. But it was too little too late as Nashville Predators winger Filip Forsberg buried one into the empty-net, assisted by Canucks’ Pettersson.

Team Sweden advances to their second straight IIHF World Championship semi-finals after not reaching this stage since 2014.

Meanwhile, Team Canada (1A) faced off against Team Denmark (4B).

Canada dominated the first two periods, outshooting the Danes 30-11, but could not beat Frederik Dochow.

That was until Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Travis Sanheim opened the scoring just over five minutes into the third:

The Danes responded to this by controlling play for the majority of the third, ending up outshooting Canada 22-10 in the period. And with under three minutes to go, Winnipeg Jets (and future Vancouver Canucks) winger Nikolaj Ehlers got his country on the board:

And off a broken defensive play by Canada, Nick Olesen scored at the netfront to erupt the Dannish fans as the home city with 48 seconds remaining:

This will go down as the biggest upset of the tournament, as Canada does not even make it to the medal rounds.

The semi-finals are set for Saturday, May 24:

Team Sweden (2A) vs. Team USA (2B) – 5:20 am PT.

Team Switzerland (1B) vs. Team Denmark (4B) – 9:20 am PT

After eliminating his teammate Hronek, Pettersson will now look to eliminate two more of his teammates in Garland and O’Connor to advance to the IIHF World Championship finals.