Granlund, Finland savor OT victory against Sweden in 4 Nations Face-Off

MONTREAL -- It was approaching 11 p.m. in Finland when the country quite likely went berserk, a hockey team having lived to see another day.

Mikael Granlund buried an odd-man chance 1:49 into overtime against Sweden at Bell Centre on Saturday, giving Finland a 4-3 win and its first points in the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Granlund ripped home a 22-foot wrist shot for the sudden-death winner, taking the shot from the right face-off circle on a 3-on-1 break.

“I finally shot one of those,” joked Granlund, who’s usually more likely to pass in that situation. “I'm glad it went in. Obviously, it was a tight game all around. Great job for us.”

Finnish legend Teemu Selanne, here doing television analysis and commentary and enjoying every second of the 4 Nations experience, stood near the back of Bell Centre’s interview room, grinning from ear to ear as Granlund fielded questions in English and Finnish after having played the hero.

The Hall of Famer knows Granlund well; the forwards were teammates for Finland in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, together winning the bronze medal.

“It was big,” Selanne said of Saturday’s win. “Obviously the first game was not very good (a 6-1 loss to the United States on Thursday). I didn’t really like what I saw but today we were saying that everybody had to play better, and they did.

“Today they played 60 minutes, and all the best players lifted their level. There were no moments that they were in big trouble. It was a totally good effort by everybody. They still have a chance now. If you lose this one, we’d be out for sure. But now both Finland and Sweden are in it so it's good for the tournament.”

Selanne had a pretty good idea of how the win was being greeted back home back in Finland, the game against its national archrival being played in prime time.

“I think they’re super happy back home,” he said. “If you want to beat anybody, you want to beat Sweden. Both teams deserve to be in the position they’re in now. In overtime you never know what’s going to happen, it could go either way.”

And then Selanne considered all the ice in 3-on-3 overtime.

“I’m jealous,” he said with a laugh.

For Granlund, the winning goal came with a little extra icing.

“It's always great to beat Sweden,” he said. “Those games are fun to play. There's so many people in Finland, in Sweden to watch these games. It's great to come [out] on top, and at the same time we are alive in this tournament. Everything is in our own hands. Good for us, and we just move on for Monday.”

Finland captain Aleksander Barkov kept the country’s tournament hopes alive with a goal-crease tip-in to tie the game at 17:05 of the second period.

Like many in the building, he was surprised that Granlund didn’t pass on the quick overtime rush.

“Honestly, I don’t expect ‘Granny’ to shoot when it's 3-on-1,” he said. “It's really good that he did because he has an amazing shot. He's so skilled, he knows what to do with it. He had a great shot, I think, in the third period, he hit the post and then again in the overtime. So it was a good goal by him, amazing game by him.”

In Boston on Monday afternoon, Finland will play Canada in the final round-robin game for both teams (1 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS). Sweden will then play the United States (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS), the top two teams advancing to Thursday’s championship final.

This was the second consecutive 1 p.m. Saturday matinee at Bell Centre, the Montreal Canadiens blanked 4-0 by the New Jersey Devils a week ago.

Montreal fans were happier on this day; Canadiens forward Patrik Laine picked up two first-period assists for Finland, and the fans had Sweden forward William Nylander, he of the archrival Toronto Maple Leafs, to boo.

It’s safe to assume that a great many television sets in Finland and Sweden were tuned to the latest clash between two great hockey rivals.

Nineteen years ago, these two Scandinavian countries met in the gold-medal game at the 2006 Torino Olympics, Sweden winning 3-2 then.

On this afternoon in Montreal, the game was a 61-minute, 49-second spirited display of hockey’s best qualities: speed, sharp goaltending, creative playmaking and a bit of truculence, no love lost between the two.

With a massive winter storm bearing down on Montreal, Finland and Sweden were packed up and headed to the airport immediately after the game for their charters to Boston. Both Canada and the United States were planning to be in the air very quickly after their game at night.

This was the eighth time that Finland and Sweden have met in an NHL international tournament, Sweden now holding a 4-2-2 record after the loss Saturday.

The fans who’d enjoyed this overtime dandy were still buzzing around Bell Centre when buses were backing into the arena around 5:30 p.m. ET, players from Canada and the U.S. reporting for work.

There was nothing better than back-to-back national rivalry games in a building that’s about seven rink lengths from Le Windsor, the former hotel that in 1917 was the birthplace of the NHL.