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Meltzer's Musings: Gustafsson in Gold Medal Game, USA Plays for Bronze |
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The bronze and gold medal games of the 2013 IIHF World Championships will take play today in Stockholm. In yesterday's semifinals, Switzerland continued its undefeated run in the tournament with a 3-0 shutout of Team USA while Sweden blanked Finland by an identical score.
The US-Switzerland game was scoreless until midway through regulation, when Nino Niederreiter finally solved John Gibson. The Americans got into penalty trouble in the third period, and Julian Walker added an insurance goal for the Swiss shortly after the expiration on the Americans' third minor penalty of the period. The final Swiss goal was an empty netter. Reto Berra earned the 29-save shutout for Switzerland.
Sweden's top line of Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin and Loui Eriksson made all the difference in Tre Kronor's victory over arch-rival Finland. Eriksson notched a pair of goals and assisted on the third, while Henrik Sedin notched an empty net goal and two assists and Daniel Sedin had three assists.
Flyers defenseman
Erik Gustafsson, as usual, led the Swedish team in ice time (24:17 over 37 shifts). A plus-one in the game, Gustafsson continued his tournament-long streak of not being out for a single opposition even-strength goal (he was on the ice when Team Canada's Steven Stamkos scored power play goals in the preliminaries and semifinals). In yesterday's game, Gustafsson came up hobbling after blocking a shot but did not miss a shift.
The USA-Finland bronze medal game is ongoing as of this writing. The Americans lead 1-0 late in the first period on a Craig Smith goal. Gibson is in goal for the Americans, with Antti Raanta tending net for the Finns.
The Sweden-Switzerland gold medal game will start at 2:30 PM EDT.
In tomorrow's blog, I will wrap up coverage of the World Championships and return to Flyer-specific topics later in the week.
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