(WGR Sports Radio 550) - In the opening game of Saturday's action at the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal, Finland pulled off a pretty big upset, beating Sweden, 4-3 in overtime.
Former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark (Ottawa Senators) came on in relief of Filip Gustavsson (Minnesota Wild), and should’ve been able to make a big save on Mikael Granlund (Dallas Stars) as the forward led a 2-on-1 with defenseman Niko Mikkola (Florida Panthers) in the overtime period. Ullmark has to get out and make a big save on the shooter for his team.
Ullmark played 41:38, and made 15 saves on 17 shots faced.
As for Gustavsson, he was pulled after the first period, as he allowed two goals on four shots faced.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin played, once again, on a defensive pairing with Gustav Forsling (Panthers) on Saturday, and I thought looked good. Dahlin was skating well and reading plays very well.
Dahlin knew when to jump in and support the rush, and he scored a goal when he saw the opportunity to head to the net and take a gorgeous backhand pass from Joel Eriksson-Ek (Wild). That goal in the second period made the score 2-2.
I thought Dahlin did a terrific job of defending on Saturday. In the first half of the game against Canada, I thought he did the same.
Dahlin ended up playing 18:42 of ice-time against Finland, and had a goal, a shot on goal, a hit and six blocked shots.
Late in the second period, Finnish defenseman Olli Maatta (Utah Hockey Club) had two players going to the net and feathered a perfect pass to the crease. The puck nicked the stick of Kaapo Kakko (Seattle Kraken) and kept going, allowing Aleksander Barkov (Panthers) to steer the puck into the open net.
If you want to talk about a tight checking game, this game provided almost no scoring chances in the third period, leading to overtime.
It boggles my mind that the Swedish coaching staff didn’t learn from the overtime loss to Canada on Wednesday. Sweden has already played in two overtime games and rarely use their defensemen.
Dahlin and Jonas Brodin (Wild) did not play in either overtime. In two games, Mattias Ekholm (Edmonton Oilers) played one shift. In two games, captain Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning) played three overtime shifts. In two games, Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins) has played 12 seconds, 14 seconds and 12 seconds, and has been on the ice for both overtime goals-against.
Karlsson is so bad defensively, any one of the other five defensemen, including Dahlin, would’ve been better choices.
It's obvious the Swedish coaching staff doesn't think much of Dahlin, as he's on their third pair of defense, doesn't play any special teams or get any shifts in overtime. I feel he and Forsling should be on the second defensive pair, and the way he's defended in this tournament, I think he has earned some penalty killing time.
After scoring Finland's lone goal on Thursday in a 6-1 loss to the United States, Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju played 16:01 of ice-time, registering a shot on goal, a hit and was a minus-1.
It was Kevin Lankinen (Vancouver Canucks) getting the start in goal for the Finns on Saturday after Juuse Saros (Nashville Predators) took the loss on Thursday against the U.S. Lankinen made 21 saves on 24 shots faced in the winning effort.
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has been the third goalie on the Finnish roster since the start of the tournament, making him a healthy scratch.
The second game of the evening Saturday at the 4 Nations Face-Off will feature another great rivalry between the United States and Canada. A win for the U.S. in regulation will secure the Americans a spot in the tournament championship game on Thursday in Boston.
When the tournament shifts to Boston on Monday, Finland will play Canada in the early game, while Sweden will match up with the U.S. in the late matchup.