Sweden earned one point in a 4-3 overtime loss to Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off opener Wednesday.
“After 10 minutes in the first period, I think honestly we felt like we were the better team the rest of the game,” Adrian Kempe told NHL.com. “Obviously you have all the (Canadian) fans at your back and everything, so they came out more excited to play than we were.”
Nathan MacKinnon scored 56 seconds into the game and Brad Marchand added another at 13:15 to give Canada an early 2-0 lead.
Jonas Brodin cut the deficit in half during the second period, but Mark Stone restored Canada’s two-goal advantage.
Sweden mounted a third-period comeback with goals from Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek to force overtime. Mitch Marner secured the win for Canada 6:03 into the extra frame.
“The first period, I felt we were a little bit stressed with the puck, but they were coming really hard too and we knew that, especially the first 15 minutes,” Brodin said. “But then after that, I thought we did a great job in the second and third.”
The Minnesota Wild defenseman added: “We talked about it after first, to calm it down and make some plays. And I thought we did.”
Sweden faces Finland Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Canada meets the United States at 8 p.m. ET. The U.S. begins tournament play against Finland Thursday night.
