Sweden took down Switzerland 5-1 in the IIHF World Championships final to earn the gold medal in the tournament.
The loss for Switzerland was its first and only loss in its run to the final. During the group stage, the Swiss won six games in regulation against Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Belarus, Canada and Slovenia. They took down the Czech Republic 2-1 in the quarterfinals and dominated the United States in the semifinals to earn a surprising finals berth.
Unfortunately, the team was unable to deal with Sweden's cast of NHL stars. Switzerland's Roman Josi scored just 4:45 into the game to open the scoring but Sweden's Erik Gustafsson tied the game less than four minutes later. Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin scored at the 11:38 mark to give Sweden the lead. The second period featured no goal scoring, but Simon Hjalmarsson added another Swedish tally at the 7:13 mark of the third to give the Swedes a 3-1 lead. Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson and Sedin added two more goals 59 seconds apart to punctuate a dominant 5-1 win. Buffalo Sabres Goalie Jhonas Enroth finished the game with 26 saves while his counterpart Martin Gerber conceded four goals on 26 shots.
"It's an unbelievable feeling. You can't put it into words," Swedish defenseman Henrik Tallinder told the IIHF website about the victory. "As soon as we got our legs and got that first goal, I thought we controlled the game pretty well."
The Gold medal was Sweden's ninth in tournament history and its first since 2006. Switzerland earned its second silver medal and its first medal overall since 1953 when it earned the bronze medal.
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