MONTREAL — Filip Gustavsson had no business stopping Devon Toews in Wednesday’s third period. The Team Sweden goalie was sliding from right to left to get in front of Connor McDavid, of all players. All of his focus, to say nothing of his momentum, was trained on getting in front of McDavid.
But instead of shooting, McDavid one-touched a slot-line pass to Toews for an unmarked one-timer. Gustavsson had to change direction in an instant. The Team Sweden goalie slammed on the brakes, lunged to his right and threw out his blocker. Somehow, Gustavsson punched out Toews’ point-blank shot.
what a save from Gustavsson to keep this game tied pic.twitter.com/xgjkBzHb6l
— Shayna (@shaynagoldman_) February 13, 2025
Without that save, Sweden might have lost in regulation in the tournament opener. The point it ended up claiming in overtime was all because of Gustavsson.
After Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Canada, Sam Hallam pulled Gustavsson aside. The Sweden coach was sure to inform his goalie that he gave his team a chance to win the game.
“He was huge,” Hallam said. “He was calm. It’s easy when things go your way. When you start giving up a goal less than a minute into the game, then you have 2-0 with really poor support in front of him, he was just keeping his calm. He pretty much stands for how the whole team handled the situation.”
Getting the opening nod was not guaranteed for Gustavsson. Linus Ullmark recovered from a back injury in time for two warmup starts for the Ottawa Senators prior to the 4 Nations Face-Off. Ullmark has a Vezina Trophy. Gustavsson does not.
But on Tuesday, Hallam told Gustavsson he was going.
“We’ve seen for a while that he’s just on the verge of breaking through,” Hallam said before the game. “Time. Confidence. Good people around him. We’re really happy with the way he’s looked all year. He’s the goalie coming into this tournament with the best history coming in, playing regularly, being in a good place, feeling really good about his game.”
Things did not start well for Gustavsson. Forty-four seconds into the night, William Nylander high-sticked Nathan MacKinnon in the face. It took only 12 seconds for Canada’s fantasyland No. 1 power-play unit to make Sweden pay.
McDavid initiated Sweden’s breakdown by walking up the right side and faking a pass to the middle. Gustav Forsling bit, opening a lane for McDavid to send a pass down to Sidney Crosby. As Crosby swiveled his rear toward Gustavsson, the goalie had to seal the strong-side post to respect the center’s backhand shot.
“You never know if Crosby’s going to do a backhander straight up under the bar there,” Gustavsson said. “So you have to care for him.”
Crosby did not shoot. He passed through the slot, under a sliding Mattias Ekholm. Gustavsson had no chance to get over in time to stop MacKinnon’s slam-dunk shot.
Gustavsson was equally helpless against Brad Marchand later in the first. The Canadians got away from an odd-man rush after a Filip Forsberg turnover and a late-arriving Victor Hedman neutral-zone stall. Brayden Point attacked Gustavsson with speed, made him commit his way and slid a slot-line pass for Marchand. The Swedish goalie could not get over in time to stop Marchand.
Hallam tried to give Gustavsson some help. He changed all three of his defensive pairings. The Swedes hung on for the rest of the first and found their legs in the second. Jonas Brodin gave his team some life with a long-distance goal.
Mark Stone answered with another no-chancer on Gustavsson. But the Swedes pushed back in the third with goals from Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek, setting up Gustavsson to deny Toews.
Gustavsson was not out of the woods in overtime. Ten minutes of three-on-three play favored the speedy and skilled Canadians. MacKinnon pumped four pucks on net. Gustavsson turned all four aside.
“He was outstanding. OT especially,” Kempe said. “When you have those guys on the other side coming at you with speed, he made some incredible saves in OT. He played really good the entire game. But obviously in OT, there’s more time and space out there. He really settled us down.”
Canada’s eighth shot got past Gustavsson. Crosby carried the puck into the offensive zone, then executed the delay to set up Mitch Marner at full speed. Because of Crosby’s drop pass, Erik Karlsson could not gap up in time to slow Marner down. The right wing snapped the winner past Gustavsson’s blocker with 3:54 left in overtime.
“Hopefully more entertaining for the fans,” Gustavsson said with a smile of Canada’s 10-minute three-on-three star power. “It’s more skill-wise doing that than penalty shots after five minutes. There’s a really good chance to score some goals. They had some good chances. So it was fun.”
(Photo: David Kirouac / Imagn Images)
