"He's been having a fantastic year for us, he's been standing on his head, but I hope he has an off night tomorrow."
That was a quip from Elias Pettersson on Friday about his Vancouver Canucks teammate Kevin Lankinen ahead of Saturday's game between Sweden and Finland. He also said that he was hoping for a different outcome than what happened the last time the two faced each other in international competition back at the 2019 World Championship, when Pettersson managed to score a goal on Lankinen but Finland came out with the overtime win.
Pettersson didn't get his wish on either count.
Lankinen wasn't perfect in the Finnish net but he came up with clutch saves when it counted to once again earn the win in overtime. It's a tough break for Pettersson and Sweden, as that's two overtime losses in their first two games, making it extremely difficult for them to finish in the top two spots and get to the championship game in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
On the plus side, at least Pettersson isn't losing a friend.
"I told Petey, I'm not going to talk to him for a couple weeks," said Lankinen on Friday. "We're on different sides now but when we get back, we're going to be friends again."
Lankinen was good when he had to be for Finland
Finland entered the tournament decimated by injuries on defence. Key defencemen Miro Heiskanen, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Jani Hakanpaa all had to miss the tournament, replaced by Henri Jokiharju, Urho Vaakanainen, and rookie Nikolas Matinpalo, who has played all of 22 NHL games.
That might have made Lankinen's job a little bit harder, though he's certainly been no stranger to playing behind a thin defence corps this season. Finland's team game, however, limited Sweden to just 24 shots on goal.
Still, Finland's play within the defensive zone did occasionally cause Lankinen some consternation, such as on Sweden's game-opening goal, which came off two defensive zone turnovers before Mika Zibanejad's quick shot found the five-hole.
Finland responded with two goals in the first period to take the lead, one in transition on a 2-on-1 by Anton Lundell and one on the power play by Mikko Rantanen. Swedish goaltender Filip Gustavsson didn't look good on either goal and Gustavsson was pulled in favour of Linus Ullmark for the start of the second period.
Sweden tied the game 2-2 five minutes into the second period when Lankinen spilled out a rebound on a point shot through traffic, allowing Joel Eriksson Ek to poke the puck in front to a pinching Rasmus Dahlin for a tap-in goal. Then Erik Karlsson gave Sweden the lead midway through the second with a snipe over Lankinen's shoulder on a 3-on-2 rush.
After that goal, however, Lankinen shut the door, stopping every shot he faced to give his teammates a chance to win the game.
Finland tied the score 3-3 before the end of the second period, as Aleksander Barkov battled through the bodies in front of the Swedish net to put in a centring pass from Olli Maatta. Then, with neither team able to score in the third period, the game went to overtime.
That's where Lankinen came up with his biggest saves of the game.
First, Lankinen had to be sharp right off the opening faceoff, as Sweden went forward off the draw to create a sudden 2-on-1. Lankinen tracked Lukas Raymond's cross-ice pass perfectly, however, and kicked aside Zibanejad's shot.
Then Lankinen had to deal with Adrian Kempe barreling in down the right wing. The puck leaked through Lankinen but he kept his wits about him: instead of rotating back to his right to get square in the net, which would have kicked the puck into his own net he had the presence of mind to stretch back his left leg instead, which kicked the puck through the crease and out the other side.
That put the puck on Niko Mikkola's stick and he handed it to Mikael Granlund and jumped up ice for a 2-on-1. Granlund looked pass the whole way before sending a no-look shot through Ullmark's five-hole to win the game.
One could argue that Lankinen deserved an assist on the goal. For now, he'll surely just be happy with the win.
Pettersson was kept a little too quiet for Sweden
Canucks fans hoping that this tournament would provide an opportunity for Pettersson to get his mojo back have been sorely disappointed.
Pettersson has been altogether too quiet for Sweden. While he's played a sound defensive game and made safe, smart plays with the puck, he's shown none of the creative brilliance that was once the hallmark of his game.
More than that, Pettersson simply isn't getting any shots. His one shot on goal against Finland was literally from centre ice and could be more accurately described as a hard dump-in. In fact, that was Pettersson's only shot attempt of the game.
It certainly seemed like he had opportunities to shoot early in the game. Two minutes in, he kept a puck in at the point then played a give-and-go with Adrian Kempe that set Pettersson up in the high slot but he tried to deke through two Finns instead of letting a shot go.
A couple of minutes later on the power play, Pettersson got the puck with room to shoot at the top of the right faceoff circle and instead of skating in and firing a wrist shot, he passed off to Jesper Bratt.
It could be argued that Pettersson made the right play in both of those circumstances. Both times, there was no traffic at the net and there were Finnish defenders getting into the shooting lane. In the first instance, trying to deke around a defender to get a shot from deeper in the slot made a certain amount of sense. In thes second, making a safe pass to allow the power play to get set up might have been the right call too.
For Canucks fans wanting Pettersson to take charge and be a little more selfish with the puck, however, those were frustrating moments.
Pettersson's lack of shots wasn't entirely his fault, though. Six minutes into the third period, he nearly got a golden opportunity off an offensive zone faceoff but before he could shoot the puck, Barkov got his stick into his hands and hooked him to the ice. That drew a penalty, giving Sweden a chance to take the lead on the power play.
Unfortunately for Sweden, Pettersson wasn't the only one struggling to get shots on net. Their power play had just one shot attempt and it went nowhere, as Victor Hedman's stick broke. The best opportunity that resulted from the power play was for Finland when Barkov came out of the box for a breakaway.
Ultimately, Pettersson was deployed more like a third-line centre than a top-six centre for Sweden. He played just 14:10 in ice time — eighth among Swedish forwards — and didn't get a shift in overtime. To be fair, overtime lasted less than two minutes; maybe Pettersson would have been next over the boards for Sweden.
It's a moot point. Now Sweden will need a regulation win over Team USA in their final round-robin game, as well as some help from Canada, in order to make the championship game.
