STOCKHOLM - And then there was one.
Well... two. Technically.
Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund are the two remaining members of the Flames playing at the 2025 IIHF World Championship after their Swedish side beat Czechia 5-2 on home ice in Avicii Arena, and Canada lost a shocker 2-1 to Denmark on the road at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning.
Last Flame(s) standing.
"I still have Backs with me," said Andersson, the Calgary blueliner serving as captain for Sweden. "It's fun, right? You never want to see your friends lose but at the end of the day, there's only one winner. Denmark... I have no clue how it happened or what happened, but this is one of those games in Denmark they almost write a book about."
Andersson set up Leo Carlsson's ice-breaker and Backlund helped seal the deal on Filip Forsberg's empty-netter to push Sweden into semifinal action at the Worlds.
They'll meet Team USA on Saturday, with the winner advancing to Sunday's championship tilt.
"Great start," Backlund said of a first period that staked Sweden to a three-goal lead. "That set the tone for the whole game. A couple PKs in the second and they score. I thought we bounced back and pushed them right out of the game. They didn't have much. I thought we controlled most of the night.
"I think coming into the tournament on paper we had the better team and expectations were high and we added some players. Going into the game we expect ourselves to go in and win."
Czechia, with Dan Vladar making a relief appearance of starter Karel Vejmelka, and Adam Klapka in a depth role up front, did eventually close gaps to 3-1 and 4-2 before bowing out to the 5-2 final.
Andersson said he liked "everything" about Sweden's game.
"Our start was really good," Andersson said. "We managed to get an early powerplay goal and then we follow it up with two more. A couple penalties to start the third and they get one, but there's no panic in our group. We kept playing and we got the fourth one. They get it 4-2 with, what, 10 minutes left and once again there was no panic in our group. We just beared down and we kept playing. At the end of the night I thought we did a really good job from start to finish."
The win guarantees the pair will play for a medal on home ice.
Colour TBD.
But only one matters.
"We have one goal here, and that's to win the gold medal," Backlund said. "That's our dream and that's what we believe we'll do. We'll push for that until the end. We'll reset now, recover, see how it shakes out, refocus and get ready."
The path, at least on paper, got a little clearer with Denmark's shocker.
Nick Olesen scored at 59:11 to break a 1-1 tie, eventually ousting MacKenzie Weegar, Ryan Huska, and Canada from the tournament in the quarterfinals.
"I'd like to see the odds before the game, on that one," Andersson said. "But they have a group that played together for a very long time. Their core is together for a very, very long time. Obviously, it surprised us. It surprises everyone else. At the same time I'm happy for my fellow Danish.
"I think the depth and the understanding of the game keeps getting better. Even if you have a worse team on paper you can still beat anyone and we clearly saw that today."
The shocker leaves Andersson and Backlund as the lone Flames representatives vying for gold.
"Yeah... it's all about the medal," Backlund said.
