Lundqvist brilliant, Sweden advances to World Cup semifinals

North America’s Morgan Rielly, left, battles for the puck with Sweden’s Henrik Sedin during the second period of a World Cup of Hockey game in Toronto, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.

And when Nathan MacKinnon inched a backhand over Henrik Lundqvist and under the cross-bar for a 4-3 victory, the Air Canada Centre exploded into euphoria.

Sweden (2-0-1) overcame an early two-goal deficit to clinch first place in Group B and a spot in the semis by getting to overtime and earning a single point against North America.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the victor 4:11 into overtime to give Team North America (2-1-0), made up of American and Canadian under-23 stars, a chance, but it still needs Team Russia to lose to Team Finland on Thursday to advance.

“I was pretty exhausted”, MacKinnon said.

Team North America coaches Todd McLellan, Dave Tippett, Gerard Gallant and Jon Cooper have stood behind the bench for more than 2,200 National Hockey League games. Despite playing the two most entertaining games of the tournament, North America is in wait-and-see mode while Sweden is the victor of Group B after getting the point it needed.

Facing 49 shots, Lundqvist was brilliant playing the second half of back-to-back games. We entertained, and we’d like a chance to continue that.

“I thought that we could be unsafe”.

Auston Matthews scored on a 2-on-1 with McDavid 30 seconds in, and Vincent Trocheck made it 2-0 North America 95 seconds in.

Lundqvist allowed three goals on the first 15 shots that he faced but stopped the next 29 in regulation.

The North Americans were sailing nicely along, but in a flash it was a tie game.

“We had no choice”. “It got us going”. Goals from Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg, Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, and St. Louis Blues last-minute add-on Patrik Berglund all contributed to the team’s overtime effort.

It happened just 15 seconds after Daniel Sedin was denied on a breakaway by North American goalie John Gibson. Hopefully these six games have been enough to convince the National Hockey League that this type of team needs to remain in the tournament going forward.

“Yeah, always when you step on the ice, you want to win the game, but obviously mission accomplished”, Sweden coach Rikard Gronborg said. A loss to Russian Federation in the game of the tournament means it’s on the wrong side of a head-to-head tiebreaker and now must hope for Finland to pull off the upset. “Hopefully we get some help from Finland”.

Shots were 9-1 North America in the first six minutes, but 16-16 at intermission. Each game featured more than a handful of did-you-see-that moves, and North America left a lasting impact on the sport. “But I didn’t think we’d have as big an impact on the hockey world as we have had so far”. With two immensely skilled teams, the period turned into a breakaway contest, finished by an incredible pass and an even better finish. “I think we’ve definitely turned some heads and opened the eyes of everyone what the future of the National Hockey League is like”.

Sweden eventually came back to force the overtime, setting the stage for MacKinnon’s heroics. All alone, the 2013 No. 1 pick beat Lundqvist top shelf like he has been doing that to goalies for decades. “The puck was in my feet, and I saw him try to poke check, so I was fortunate to put it in”. “It was fun, a fun goal”.