With 77 seconds left of the extension, Finland decided. Miska Mäkinen sent in the winning goal that gave the Finns the nation's fifth World Championship gold in floorball history.
It's incredibly tough, of course. You would have wanted to win at home, now everything is terrible, says Tobias Gustafsson, who together with Emil Johansson shared the task as team captain during the tournament.
What's really happening? They're slowly catching up. We play well for 30 minutes, then the Finns are better for 30. Then it becomes what it becomes in sudden death.
"Goal directly"
Around 25 minutes into this year's World Championship final in Malmö Arena, everything indicated that Sweden would take its eleventh gold on the men's side.
Sweden had scored two goals within 110 seconds at the beginning of the match. This was followed by 3–0 before the first period was over, and five minutes into the second act, the lead was extended to 4–0.
Finland, however, came back with two goals before the period was over and also scored 3–4 in numerical superiority directly in the third.
They score directly and it becomes a bit more nervous. Then they also get an equalizer. We have a few chances at the end where we could have decided as well, but it's the same for the Finns. It's small margins when it's on the line, says Tobias Gustafsson.
We played a bit like juniors, says defender Robin Nilsberth.
Nilsberth hit the crossbar with 20 seconds left to play in regular time.
I've had a lot of luck in my career, and maybe it was over, says the 35-year-old.
"It's life"
He is now retiring from the national team, where he has been part of a total of four World Championship gold medals since his championship debut in 2012. A silver cannot make Nilsberth reconsider.
No, this was my last national team game. It's empty. It's not an ending you want, but it's sports, it's life, says Robin Nilsberth and continues:
The bigger the matches and the higher up you play, the higher the stakes and the worse it gets when you lose. That's what I'm feeling today.
2024: Finland–Sweden 5–4 after extension
2022: Sweden–Czech Republic 9–3
2021: Sweden–Finland 6–4
2018: Finland–Sweden 6–3
2016: Finland–Sweden 4–3 after penalties
2014: Sweden–Finland 3–2
2012: Sweden–Finland 11–5
2010: Finland–Sweden 6–2
2008: Finland–Sweden 7–6 after extension
2006: Sweden–Finland 7–6 after extension
2004: Sweden–Czech Republic 6–4
2002: Sweden–Finland 6–4
2000: Sweden–Finland 5–3
1998: Sweden–Switzerland 10–3
1996: Sweden–Finland 5–0
