World Championship Recap - 24.05.25

The immaculate house-party vibes quickly turned somber, as the hometown Avicii Arena filled with the sound of that classic southern rock anthem instead.

'Won't you fly high, free bird, yeah.'

Indeed, the now-famous U.S. goal song - Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird' - was played on repeat, as the red, white and blue knocked off the Swedes 6-2 in semifinal action, and dashing their opponent's hopes of winning a gold medal on home soil in Stockholm.

Mikael Backlund, Rasmus Andersson and Tre Kronor will now have to settle for a shot at bronze, Sunday at 7:20 a.m. MT vs. Denmark.

Sweden entered the semis with a 6-0-0-1 record and were seen by many as the odds-on favourite to win it all with the powerhouse Canadian squad bowing out in the quarterfinals.

Brady Skjei, Cutter Gauthier, Conor Garland, Mikey Eyssimont, Jackson LaCombe and Shane Pinto supplied the American offence, while Jeremy Swayman stopped 27 shots in the victory.

"First period wans't good enough," Andersson told reporter Lindsay Hamilton in a walk-off interview. "We came out flat for whatever reason and it was just an uphill battle from there.

"Honestly, I haven't even though about it yet," he added of Sunday's bronze-medal game. "Just very disappointing; a disappointing way to end. It sucks and it feels like we let a lot of people down today."

Sweden scored twice, 41 seconds apart, midway through the third period to cut the deficit to two and put a scare into the tournament's youngest team.

William Nylander struck first, off a beautiful backdoor feed from Andersson, before Elias Lindholm sent a rocket of a one-timer past Swayman to not only get the crowd back into it, but put the Americans firmly on their heels, too.

It was a full-court, third-period press - but the comeback stalled at 8:51, when LaCombe took advantage of an aggressive pinch by the home team, sped off down the far side and rifled one over the shoulder of Samuel Ersson to make it a 5-2 game.

Ersson tagged in for former Flame Jacob Markstrom, who allowed four goals on 16 shots in the first two periods.

Pinto scored into the empty net from his own end to round out the scoring late.

Andersson was named Sweden's Player of the Game, finishing with the assist, along with one shot, in 19:36 of ice time.

Backlund, meanwhile, had a game-high six shots while logging 15:48.

The U.S. will now play Switzerland for gold on Sunday at 12:20 p.m. MT - a medal their side hasn't won at this event since 1933. They'd lost 12 straight semifinal games prior to this one, but are now guaranteed a top-two finish for the first time in 75 years.

The Americans were all over the Swedes early, scoring twice and out-shooting home team 13-3 in tilted opening frame. Skjei got the ball rolling at 6:52, sending a floater - from distance - that eluded traffic and fooled former Flame Jacob Markstrom between the pipes. Gauthier then made it a 2-0 game at 17:13, as he pounced a loose puck at the hash marks and slipped a quick shot five-hole.

Garland poked home a loose puck to extend the American lead to 3-0 at 11:07 of the second. A Logan Cooley blast from the left circle squeaked through Markstrom and lay dangerously in the blue paint, where Garland - the lone blue sweater in a swarm of three yellows - was first to it, pitchforking it into the yawning cage.

Eyssimont wired a shot from the right circle to make it 4-0 with 2:57 to play in the middle frame, capping a 4-on-2 rush for the Americans.