Finland secured a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory over Sweden in the semifinals of the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship, advancing to the gold medal game.
OTTAWA — Finland is back in the gold-medal game at the world junior hockey championship . Benjamin Rautiainen scored on a power play at 9:22 of overtime to secure the country's 4-3 victory over Sweden in the semifinals of the men's under-20 tournament Saturday. The forward snuck a shot past Swedish goaltender Melker Thelin on a 4-on-3 man advantage with Vancouver Canucks prospect Tom Willander in the box for holding. It was Rautiainen's second goal of the competition.
Emil Hemming, with a goal and an assist, Jesse Kiiskinen and Arttu Alasiurua provided the rest of the offence for the Finns, who got 43 saves from Petteri Rimpinen. Konsta Helenius had three assists, while Topias Hynninen had two. Otto Stenberg, with two goals, and Wilhelm Hallquisth replied for the Swedes. Thelin stopped 31 shots. Finland, which hasn't won gold since beating the United States when the Scandinavians last hosted in 2019, will meet the winner of the late semifinal between the Americans and Czechia in Sunday's title game. Sweden gets the loser in the battle for bronze. Finland's last podium finish was a silver in 2022 when Canada — eliminated by Czechia in the quarterfinals for the second straight year Thursday — won gold in Edmonton. The Swedes, who have secured just two gold medals in tournament history and lost last year's title game to the U.S. on home soil in Gothenburg, opened the scoring 1:22 into the middle period when Stenberg beat Rimpinen on a 2-on-1 for his second. Finland tied it when Hemming buried his first off a give-and-go with Helenius at 4:32. The Finns then had a goal called back for offside, but Kiiskinen made it 2-1 at 13:28 with his fifth on a power play. Stenberg scored his second of the game at 18:07 to knot things up on a Swedish man advantage before Alasiurua pushed Finland ahead 3-2 with 20.8 seconds remaining in the perio
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