Since Jacob Markström got injured and had to withdraw, and Linus Ullmark only played two matches before the tournament after a long injury period, the goalkeeper issue in Tre Kronor has been open.
Now the choice falls on Filip Gustavsson, which national team captain Sam Hallam confirmed after the morning warm-up.
"Gus" will be our man. We've seen for a while that he's on the verge of breaking through. We're very pleased with how he's looked all season. He's the one of our goalkeepers with the best season so far, says Hallam.
Filip Gustavsson led the goalie league in NHL for a while in the fall. He has taken the step to become Minnesota's first-choice goalkeeper and has won 22 of 37 NHL matches this season with a 91.5 save percentage.
It went really well in the fall, then we had a few bad matches here and there, and then we evened it out, he says about his season, where he made headlines last week with a monster performance and 38 saves in a 2-1 win over Carolina.
Gustavsson was the first-choice goalkeeper when Tre Kronor took the World Championship bronze in the Czech Republic in May.
It will be incredibly cool to play in front of a full arena with only Canadians in the stands. An incredible honor, he says about the match against Canada (start 02.00 Swedish time).
Canada announced on Tuesday that Jordan Binnington will be the first-choice goalkeeper and will play all three matches. Tre Kronor doesn't have such a plan.
No, there's a pretty intelligent old expression "one match at a time". That's where we are, then we'll take an analysis before Saturday, says Hallam.
Philadelphia's Samuel Ersson is the third goalkeeper in the squad.
