STOCKHOLM :Team USA hammered co-hosts Sweden 6-2 on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s final of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship, giving the Americans a chance at their first gold medal at the tournament for more than 90 years.
Olympic gold medallists in 1960 and 1980, the Americans have not won gold at the world championship since 1933, but their drubbing of co-hosts Sweden sets them up for a decider against either Switzerland or surprise package Denmark, who face off in the second semi-final later on Saturday.
The Americans stunned the fervent home support by taking the lead at the 6:52 mark of the first period, defenceman Brady Skjei picking up the puck on the blue line to the left of the goal and firing a perfectly-placed shot into the top-right corner, and the Americans never looked back.
The crowd were silenced again with 2:47 left in the first as Cutter Gauthier swivelled in front of goal and sent a shot zipping between the legs of Sweden goaltender Jacob Markstrom.
The Swedes had no answer for the speed and aggression of their opponents, managing only three shots on target in the first 20 minutes as their deep roster struggled to find time and space, even when the Americans were short-handed.
The Americans put two more goals on the board in the second when Conor Garland and Mikey Eyssimont netted and the end of the second period was greeted by a chorus of boos and whistles from the gold-and-blue clad Swedish fans among the 12,530 in attendance.
William Nylander finally gave them something to cheer by slamming home the puck 6:32 into the third period, and Elias Lindholm smashed a low drive into the net less than a minute later to make it 4-2 with just under 13 minutes left to play.
That was as close as the the Swedes got, and any hopes of a comeback were snuffed out when Team USA’s Jackson Lacombe scored with a superb solo breakaway goal to make it 5-2, with Shane Pinto putting the icing on the cake shortly afterwards, firing into an empty net with 4:07 remaining.
“We just kind of wanted to win the game, I don’t think we worried too much about whether they were the hosts or not – they were obviously going to be a good team and we just had to put in a good effort, and we did,” Pinto told Reuters.
The 24-year-old centre revealed that he would not watch the second semi-final between Switzerland and the Danes, who pulled off one the greatest shocks in hockey history by beating Canada 2-1 on Thursday.
“I probably won’t be, I’ll just be checking the score and I’m sure we’ll do video tomorrow on whatever team we play, so, yeah, just try to get some rest and just recover here,” Pinto said.
The puck drops in Sunday’s final at the same arena at 2020 CET (1820 GMT), with Sweden taking part in the bronze-medal game against the other losing semi-finalist earlier in the day.
