After a 6-1 loss to the United States on Thursday, Finland roared back Saturday against rival Sweden. A tightly contested game went back and forth before heading to overtime, where the Finns pulled out the 4-3 victory off the stick of Mikael Granlund.
Following the overtime win, the Finns move into third place in the round robin with two points, holding the tiebreaker over Sweden, which also has two points:
Here are grades for both teams, our biggest takeaways, key players to watch for the next game as well as lingering questions.
Grading the teams
Finland: B+
This was the Finland that was expected to show up in its opening game against the United States but struggled to find consistency. It's not that Finland didn't have its moments of cohesion in its first game. But what made Finland's performance on Saturday afternoon different was it applied pressure at all times.
The U.S. gashed Finland for high-danger scoring chances at a rate of 2-to-1. Come Saturday, Finland limited Sweden to just two high-danger scoring chances and didn't give up any in the third period and in overtime. Finland also received offensive contributions from its stars that were elusive against the U.S.
Now that it has a win in hand, Finland's prospects for the 4 Nations look much different than they did Thursday, after having what was one of the men's national team's worst performances in recent memory. -- Ryan S. Clark
Sweden: C-
Giving up four goals to this Finland team and its depth challenges should be disqualifying, even if one of those goals came in the 3-on-3 overtime. The Swedes fell behind thanks to a leaky goaltending performance from Filip Gustavsson. Twice, they gave up goals in the final three minutes of a period. They couldn't convert on the power play and gave up a power-play goal to the Finns.
So many of their offensive standouts are slumbering in this tournament: Elias Pettersson, Filip Forsberg and Elias Lindholm are all scoreless in the tournament. Adrian Kempe and Jesper Bratt went scoreless against Finland.
The math isn't mathing all that great anymore for the Swedes. They entered the game with a loser point from the Canada loss in overtime, facing a Finland team that was skated out of the rink by the Americans. With a three-point regulation win, the Swedes would have been in prime position to challenge for a spot in the championship match. Instead, they earn their second-straight charity point -- and a much harder road to the final that goes through the U.S. in Boston on Monday. -- Greg Wyshynski
What we learned
The Finnish adjustments worked
Changes were likely after Finland lost by five goals against the Americans. Finland coach Antti Pennanen and his staff opted to go with Kevin Lankinen in goal to replace Juuse Saros, who allowed six goals against the U.S. They decided to bring in Kaapo Kakko after he was a healthy scratch, while shuffling a top-nine forward corps that saw Mikael Granlund move to the second line and Patrik Laine move to the third.
Lankinen finished with 21 saves, with a number of them playing a role in keeping the game tight -- perhaps none more than a right pad save at the start of OT. Kakko was initially awarded the goal that tied the game at 3-3, although it would be later given to Aleksander Barkov. Even with that change, Kakko was still at the net front -- something Finland struggled to do with regularity against the U.S.
Moving Laine to the third line saw him start the sequence that led to Anton Lundell scoring the game's first goal. After zero points in the first game, Laine also had an assist on Finland's power-play goal. As for Granlund? He responded by scoring the winning goal in OT. -- Clark
Sweden swaps in Ullmark
Sweden ran it back with Filip Gustavsson in net against the Finns, after he stopped 24 of 28 shots in Sweden's 4-3 overtime loss to Canada -- including seven in the extra session. So it could be argued he earned the chance to go in the second game. He did not earn the right to continue beyond the first period of that game, however, giving up two goals on four shots that included a Mikko Rantanen flub on the power play that Gus misplayed.
Enter Linus Ullmark, the former Vezina Trophy winner who had just come back from an 18-game absence with a back injury. He made an immediate impact in the second period with a pair of saves that kept the deficit at one goal. He couldn't exactly be faulted for Barkov's goal, as his crease was more crowded than an IKEA on a Saturday afternoon.
He certainly played well enough to make coach Sam Hallam regret not giving him the crease for Game 2, and almost certainly has earned it for Monday's game against the Americans. -- Wyshynski
Three the not-so-hard way for Finland
Finding ways to keep its opponents within reach is one of the hallmarks of Finland's strategy. It's something the Finns did against the U.S. when they trailed by a goal entering the third period only to allow three goals on the first four shots in what was a 6-1 loss. What Finland accomplished in the third period against Sweden was noteworthy for more reasons than just how its defensive structure held firm.
Finland was able to survive an early third-period penalty against Sweden, something it failed to do against the U.S. But even that early penalty ended with captain Aleksander Barkov getting a breakaway. Barkov's shot went wide, but it was the first of what were a few point-blank chances Finland had in the third, another item it struggled to find in its opening game.
The ability to find those scoring chances while also limiting Sweden to zero high-danger scoring chances in 5-on-5 play allowed Finland to go from a deflating opening game to one that it won in overtime two days later. -- Clark
Swedish defensive depth makes difference
The Swedes had one clear advantage in their lineup entering the 4 Nations Face-Off: a deep, mobile core of defensemen who could contribute plenty of offense. One of their three goals against Canada came from a blueliner in Minnesota's Jonas Brodin. But that dynamic D was on full display in the overtime loss to Finland.
Rasmus Dahlin went hard to the net to convert a Joel Eriksson Ek pass for the game-tying goal in the second period. Just over five minutes later, Erik Karlsson blazed through the neutral zone and scored off a William Nylander feed to give the Swedes the lead -- and, in the process, perhaps reminded other NHL teams that if they need a scoring D-man and have an extra $10 million of cap space annually for the next two seasons, give the Pittsburgh Penguins a call before the March 7 trade deadline. -- Wyshynski
Players to watch
Esa Lindell, D, Finland
Let's go back to the first game of the tournament. Actually, let's go back to before the first game. Finland entered the 4 Nations Face-Off facing questions about how it could manage without three of its best defensemen -- Miro Heiskanen, Rasmus Ristolainen and Jani Hakanpaa -- who were missing the tournament because of injuries. Those questions came up again after Finland's loss to the U.S. on Thursday.
There's a chance that will persist through Monday's game against Canada, but what Lindell did against Sweden silenced that narrative for at least one game. The Dallas Stars defenseman finished with 28:20 in ice time, which was the most of any skater on either team. He led Finland with four blocked shots and was the anchor of a unit that now heads into Monday facing a major test. -- Clark
Elias Pettersson, C, Sweden
There was already a magnifying glass on Pettersson before the tournament after the Vancouver Canucks traded J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers, ostensibly choosing Pettersson in resolving the ongoing feud between the teammates. His offensive underachievement this season (34 points in 49 games) was assumed to be a product of that internal strife. Fans wanted to see immediate results. Pettersson had one assist in the four games since the trade.
It was hoped that maybe 4 Nations could flip the switch for him, putting his NHL worries behind him. He had no points and one shot on goal against Canada. He had no points and one shot on goal against Finland. His coach removed the most productive player from Pettersson's line -- Adrian Kempe -- and moved him with Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander late in the game.
Pettersson has more game to be his best in this best-on-best tournament. We haven't seen it yet. -- Wyshynski
Big questions for the next game
Can Finland carry this over into its Monday date with Canada?
A loss, even if it had been in overtime, would have led to a discussion about what Finland must do between now and the 2026 Olympics if it wants to medal. That conversation will eventually happen, but winning in overtime against Sweden now has Finland waiting to see the outcome of the Canada-U.S. game with the belief that the championship game feels more in play than it did Thursday.
Facing the U.S. in its first game provided Finland with a blueprint for what it needed to do against Sweden to avoid a consecutive loss. The way it played against Sweden gave Finland more insight into how its physical, two-way identity can win games and give the Finns the continuity they lacked against the Americans. Now it's a matter of determining how Finland can translate what it did against Sweden into a similar result against Canada for a berth in the title game. -- Clark
How will Sweden scramble its lines?
Coach Sam Hallam made one aggressive lineup change during the loss to Finland, moving Adrian Kempe from Elias Pettersson's line to Mika Zibanejad's wing, dropping Rickard Rakell off the top line. Does he run that back against the U.S.? Does he scramble his bottom six?
Will there be changes to a power play that's yet convert in this tournament (0-3), such as giving Jesper Bratt more ice time or Kempe any ice time, having not spent a second on the man advantage in two games despite 25 goals in the NHL regular season? Is it Leo Carlsson time?
Something's gotta change for Sweden and change fast, with the Americans looming on their home ice on Monday. -- Wyshynski