Canada stuns Sweden with OT comeback in quarter-final at men's hockey worlds
Sweden blows 3-0 lead, Drake Batherson scores winner 43 seconds into overtime
Drake Batherson scored 43 seconds into overtime, powering Canada to a 4-3 comeback victory over Sweden in the quarterfinals at the world hockey championship Thursday.
Ryan Graves sparked Canada's comeback with a goal 1:21 into the third, and Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matt Barzal — playing on his 25th birthday — scored 30 seconds apart later in the period to force extra time.
Nylander was called for tripping 25 seconds into overtime and Canada was quick to capitalize on the man advantage, with Batherson sending a sharp-angle shot in behind Swedish goaltender Linus Ullmark from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
"Obviously being down 3-0 going into the third period was not what we planned, but we were able to get that goal early in the third," said Batherson. "I was frustrated that I took a penalty, and to be honest I thought we were going to have a hard time coming back, but we never gave up."
WATCH | Drake Batherson completes Canada's comeback past Sweden:
Barzal and Dubois both assisted on the game-winning goal.
Chris Driedger stopped 16-of-19 shots for Canada and Ullmark made 38 saves for Sweden.
"[Ullmark] was outstanding, and he deserves a lot of credit for his performance. We tried not to get frustrated and instead we were determined in the third period to get pucks into the net," said Canadian coach Claude Julien. "The first goal gave us some life, and we just tried to give ourselves opportunities to score. We felt really good about our game from the second period on, and the goal from Graves got our confidence up."
Canada, the tournament's defending champions, will face the Czechs in the semifinals on Saturday. Czech Republic defeated Germany 4-1 in their quarter-final match.
The United States and Finland will meet in the other semifinal game. The U.S. shutout Switzerland 3-0 while Finland beat Slovakia 4-2 to conclude Thursday's quarter-final action.
The medal games are set to be played on Sunday.
