Thanks to those two and Cole Eiserman, who scored the game-changing goal, the Americans have a chance to win the competition back-to-back for the first time in program history. To do that, they will have to beat Finland, who had a 4-3 advantage over Sweden in the other semifinal.
“We will be ready,” assured Captain Leonard after his performance. It’s the gold medal game, it’s pretty easy to prepare for it. We know that our country has never achieved this feat and we hope to achieve it. »
Leonard and his teammates have had this goal in mind since the team’s inception last summer. Coach David Carle and the team staff placed great emphasis on the message that back-to-back gold medals at this tournament would send to other nations.
“We approached everything with the ultimate goal in mind, and then we built the process to get there,” the driver explained. All the guys believed in it and bought the plan. We have continually improved. This is what I am most proud of. We deserved to find ourselves in this situation. We have to leave everything on ice. »
Even if everything seems to be working for the Americans, it should be remembered that they lost 4-3 in overtime against the Finns during the preliminary round. The latter have also maintained a perfect record in five games since their 4-0 defeat against Canada in the opening match of the tournament.
They will still play the role of underdog, but they will not lack confidence.
“A team needs time to grow together and unite,” maintained coach Lauri Mikkola after the first semi-final. This defeat against Canada was a big lesson for our guys. Afterwards, we did a lot of good things, and this is the result. »
If it continues its momentum, Finland could win its first gold medal since 2019, when it beat the United States in the final, on Canadian soil in Vancouver.
Sweden fails again
Perfect in five matches before this semi-final, Sweden will have to be content with competing for bronze against the Czech Republic. As she has a bad habit of doing during the elimination rounds, she spoiled her good run by finding a way to lose against her rivals.
The country with three crowns has only one gold medal to its credit since 1981. A surprising figure to say the least given the quality of the players who have donned the yellow and blue jersey. Sweden’s last victory was in 2012, and they have appeared in four finals since then.
The encouraging news is that they beat the Czech Republic 4-2 in the preliminary round. If she does it again, she will get her hands on a fourth medal in six years.
“We have to erase all this from our memory and start from scratch,” concluded Swedish defender Otto Stenberg, who scored two goals in the defeat. We don’t want to finish fourth. We want to win tomorrow. »
