Leo Carlsson and Jonas Brodin scored the Swedish goals.
The Swedes dominated greatly in terms of play – won the shots 41–19 – but a Finnish reduction with seven minutes left made the end dramatic.
But Three Crowns could, with great effort, hold on.
The start of the two first matches – the wins against Slovakia and Austria – had been poor.
Three Crowns wanted to improve against Finland. Moreover, to get more shots on goal.
Great dominance
The first period at the Globen offered both and.
The Swedes started swirling and the shot statistics in the first period became crushing 16–2.
But in the goal column it was only 1–0.
Leo Carlsson scored a rebound after Erik Gustafsson's shot in numerical superiority after 4.45.
The Swedes also got a four-minute long power play – after a high stick with a bloody nose on Lucas Raymond – and the Swedes were close again, but got no reward.
It worked well, we created a lot on the second one too, but four minutes should be at least one more goal, says Leo Carlsson to Viaplay.
Saros saved Finland
Sweden flew forward and Finland didn't have much to put up against. Had it not been for the Finnish goalkeeper Juuso Saros, Nashville, the lead would have been greater.
Finland started better in the second period, thanks to a power play, but soon the match picture looked like in the first period.
In a swift counterattack, Lucas Raymond played forward to the defenseman Jonas Brodin who shot directly and outsmarted Saros to 2–0.
The Minnesota defenseman scored four goals in 50 regular season matches in the NHL – in the World Championship, Brodin has made three goals in three matches.
With that, he is the top scorer in the Swedish team together with Mika Zibanejad.
Sweden has 19 NHL players in its World Championship squad, Finland has more SHL players (7) than NHL players (6).
It usually doesn't play any role – and even this time it became dramatic since Finland reduced with seven minutes left.
After a tangled situation in front of Markström, Harri Pesonen could make it 1–2.
Markström protested and believed he was disturbed by a Finnish player, but after video review, the goal was approved.
It's the World Championship. Finland is also a good team and Saros was great in goal, says Leo Carlsson to Viaplay, about the somewhat unexpected end drama.
It could just as well have been 5–0 after two periods, nice to win anyway.
The six last meetings in championship context and Four Nations between the arch-rivals had gone to overtime or penalties.
Now Sweden could finally win under ordinary match time.
May 9: Sweden–Slovakia 5–0.
May 10: Sweden–Austria 4–2.
May 12: Finland–Sweden 1–2.
May 14: Latvia–Sweden (20.20).
May 16: Sweden–Slovenia (20.20).
May 17: France–Sweden (16.20).
May 20: Sweden–Canada (20.20).
