Sweden earns world junior hockey bronze, defeats Czechia 3-1

Sweden celebrates the bronze medal win over Czechia during IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship bronze medal game action in Edmonton on Saturday August 20, 2022 (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson).

EDMONTON -

Isak Rosen scored the game-winner for Sweden in a 3-1 victory over Czechia to take the bronze medal at the world junior men's hockey championship Saturday.

After Sweden's Fabian Lysell scored at 14:22 in the first period, Michael Gut pulled Czechia even with a power-play goal at 13:30 of the second.

But Rosen restored Sweden's lead less than two minutes later and Linus Sojodin added an insurance goal with four minutes remaining in the game.

Bronze wasn't the medal colour Rosen and his teammates wanted, but the Buffalo Sabres prospect was happy with his team's performance Saturday.

“You strive to win the last game,” Rosen said. “Of course we wanted the gold, but better bronze than nothing.”

Sweden's Jesper Wallstedt stopped 27 shots for the win. Czechia, formerly the Czech Republic, had 20 saves from Tomas Suchanek.

Sweden finished third in the tournament for the second time in three years after the same result in 2020 in Czechia.

The Czechs' last medal was bronze in 2005.

The host Canadians (6-0-0) met Finland (5-1-0) in the gold-medal game later Saturday.

Canada doubled the Finns 6-3 in the preliminary round.

Canada has won 18 world junior gold with its most recent in 2020.

Finland has been the top team five times and most recently in 2019 when Vancouver and Victoria were co-hosts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2022.