ROC outlast Sweden in marathon shootout to reach Beijing 2022 final

ROC are one win away from retaining their Olympic men's ice hockey title after coming through an epic semi-final with Sweden on Friday (18 February).

Arseniy Gritsyuk converted his side's eighth penalty shot of a shootout as ROC won 2-1 to reach Sunday's final at Beijing 2022.

This was a slow-burner of a match with the first period failing to yield a goal.

“I think it was really tight, honestly. Nobody really wants to let out any chance and we’re staying close here. It’s physical, it’s tight and it’s just what we expected,” said Sweden forward Carl Klingberg after the first period.

But just 15 seconds into the second period, ROC went in front through Anton Slepyshev.

"That's what we need right now. In all of those games, it's a good rhythm," said ROC forward Sergei Andronov of Slepyshev's strike. "The key is not thinking about the next day. Today is the day. We need to win the day, that's it."

Win it they did, eventually.

Sweden captain Anton Lander scored six minutes into third period to level the scores, and that's how it remained until the shootout.

ROC went first but it was Lucas Wallmark who put the Swedes ahead with their second attempt.

Nikita Gusev immediately tied it up before Joakim Nordstrom restored the Swedes' advantage.

After a couple of misses, Yegor Yakovlev levelled the shootout at 2-2 before Ivan Fedotov denied Lander what would have been the game-winner.

That took the game into sudden death and, after two more misses apiece, Fedotov saved from Max Friberg before Gritsyuk's decisive strike past Sweden goalie Lars Johansson set up a gold medal game with Finland.

ROC head coach Alexei Zhamnov said afterwards, "I think the whole team played well because Sweden are a very good team. They've played well the whole tournament. We knew it was going to be a tough game."

Mikhail Grigorenko added, "Honestly it was really nerve-racking. We knew it was not going to be a high-scoring game. I think every player on my team played his heart out. We played for each other. Credit to the Swedes, they fought hard."

Lander admitted that losing such a close game "really sucks".

He continued, " It was a pretty solid hockey game with two teams that worked hard. I'm proud of my team. We played against a good team and we wish them luck in the final against Finland. You lose some big games and you win some big games. This was a tough one to lose."

Sweden face Slovakia for bronze on Saturday at 21:10 local time (14:10 CET) with ROC meeting Finland in Sunday's gold medal game at 12:10 Beijing time.

On potentially winning back-to-back titles, Zhamnov said, "We try. It's good for our country, it's good for our hockey to go to the final in two Olympic Games. We'll try but it won't be easy. We know Finland are a very good team and we want to make sure we're ready."