In his last World Cup as national team captain, Sam Hallam's Tre Kronor had a knife to their throats in the group stage against Slovakia.
A blue-and-yellow victory during regulation time was required to reach the quarterfinals. Any other result would mean missing the playoffs - for only the second time since 1985.
When everything was at stake, Tre Kronor got off to a nightmare start in the BCF Arena in Fribourg.
After just under five minutes, Slovakia took the lead on a counterattack after junior Anton Frondell – back from injury – carelessly cleared the puck in the offensive zone.
Icy and dramatic
In a hot summer in Switzerland, Sweden was icy cold and uninviting.
Slovakia hit the crossbar and forced the blue-yellow goalkeeper Magnus Hellberg to make big plays in double numerical superiority.
However, Ivar Stenberg was never worried.
"No, they came out strong, but you could tell they were getting tired and we were taking over more and more," he tells Viaplay.
It took over 13 minutes before Samuel Hlavaj had his first shot on goal in the Slovak goal.
The finish lifted Sweden and on the fourth shot it was 1-1 when Frondell scored the equalizer via Hlavaj's shinguard.
"It felt good after the mistake on the first goal, when I dropped the puck in the attacking zone, to be able to hang on instead," the 19-year-old tells Viaplay.
The start of the second period was a completely different story. At 2:50 Jakob Silfverberg scored to give Sweden the lead when they came up two against one.
Halfway through the period, the successful junior Ivar Stenberg, 18, showed why he is expected to go second overall in this summer's NHL draft. The Frölunda forward skated past defenseman Frantisek Gajdos and put the puck in off the crossbar to make it 3-1 – his fourth goal of the tournament.
"Raymond chipped the puck out to me well and it just happened the way it did," he says about the goal.
Killed time
An unnecessary penalty brought Slovakia back into the game when Marek Hrivík reduced the deficit on the power play.
The third period was a long battle for position. Sweden was in the right places, effectively killing time when the opportunity arose, and in the final stages Oliver Ekman-Larsson was able to score 4-2 into an empty net.
"It was a warrior effort, especially in the third, but we held it together," says Sam Hallam.
The three points mean that Sweden finishes fourth in the group and takes the last quarter-final spot. The quarter-finals await in Zurich on Thursday.
