Sweden beats Canada to win bronze at 2024 IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship

Sweden has won bronze at the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship after beating Canada 4-2 on Sunday afternoon in Czechia.

It’s Sweden’s first medal since winning consecutive golds in 2017 and 2018. Canada’s run of consecutive medals ends at four years, losing in the bronze game for the first time since 2018.

Czechia and Switzerland will play for gold at 2:20 PM ET in Prague today.

The Swedes scored the lone goal of the first period at 12:05. Carl Grundstrom would beat Jordan Binnington down low after Rasmus Dahlin got the puck to him before sending it over to Linus Johansson. Johansson then got the puck back to Grundstrom to finish off the nice passing work.

But Canada answered back early in the second. At 22:41, Jamie Oleksiak skated around the Swedish net and found Dylan Cozens in front, with the Buffalo Sabres forward firing it past Filip Gustavsson for the 1-1 goal.

The second period saw the two teams trade goals. Canada took a 2-1 lead thanks to Pierre-Luc Dubois’ goal at 44:18, giving his team some hope. But three straight goals – one from Erik Karlsson, another from Grundstrom and an empty-netter from Marcus Johansson – allowed Sweden to finish the third-period comeback and take home bronze.

Here’s a look at the top players from the two teams:

Canada

#38 Brandon Hagel, RW (Tampa Bay Lightning): No matter the game, nobody outworked Hagel. He just did so to generate energy and force turnovers, and he helped make the second Canadian goal happen after setting up Dubois’ goal.

#22 Dylan Cozens, C (Buffalo Sabres): Cozens’ ninth goal of the tournament was huge for Canada, even if it didn’t matter in the end. He was Canada’s best player all tournament long and a serious threat to make the tournament all-star team after leading the tournament in the goal department. Buffalo fans, I hope he can replicate that for you next year.

#24 Jamie Oleksiak, D (Seattle Kraken): Named top player today for the Canadians, I can’t disagree. He made an excellent pass to set up Cozens’ goal, but then just played the physical, intimidating defensive game that he’s known for. He had a rough start to the tournament but I feel like he made up for it the past few games with a much more controlled, rounded effort.

Sweden

#91 Carl Grundstrom, LW (Los Angeles Kings): Grundstrom had three goals in 10 games – but with two of them today, he helped snag the victory. Sweden probably would have liked that yesterday against Czechia, but the bronze medal game was the second-best option, for sure. A nice way to close out the tournament for the winger.

#37 Isac Lundstrom, C (Anaheim Ducks): Lundstrom didn’t score, but he played with so much speed to create scoring chances. It was good to see him out there after taking an elbow from Jan Rutta in the semifinal, and it was especially good to see him so involved in front of the net.

#35 Filip Gustavsson, G (Minnesota Wild): Gustavsson made 20 saves today, which wasn’t a ton, but he kept it close in a game that saw his Canadian counterpart fall apart at the end. Gustavsson had been one of the best goaltenders all tournament long but fell apart against Czechia on Saturday. It was good to see him bounce back big today.