Florida Panthers center Nick Bjugstad played a limited role in the USA’s 3-2 shootout win over Finland on Sunday in Stockholm. The victory gave the Cats’ youngster and the rest of Team USA the bronze medal. Bjugstad logged 8:15 of ice time in the game, had no shots on goal, won 2/3 faceoffs and finished with an even rating. He did not play in the third period or overtime as coach Joe Sacco decided to go almost exclusively with three lines. Craig Smith and Paul Stastny scored in the first period to stake the USA to 2-0 lead before a Lauri Korpikosky pair in the third sent the game to extra time. Montreal’s Alex Galchenyuk second goal in the shootout proved to be the winner after Mikael Granlund missed in the fourth round. John Gibson was the winning goaltender while Antti Raanta took the loss for Finland.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom backed up Jhonas Enroth as Sweden beat Switzerland 5-1 to capture the gold medal. Henrik Sedin led the way for the Swedes with two goals and an assist. Roman Josi gave Switzerland a 1-0 lead at first period before Erik Gustafsson tied the game almost three minutes later. Sedin’s first score, on a power play, gave Sweden a lead it would not relinquish. Simon Hjalmarsson and Loui Eriksson scored in the third period before Sedin’s second, shorthanded into an empty-net, completed the scoring. Enroth stopped 26 saves to post the win while Martin Gerber got tagged with the first loss of the tournament for Switzerland, who took home the silver medal.
Sunday’s Medal Round Results
Sweden (Markstrom: DNP) over Switzerland, 5-1
USA (Bjugstad: 0Pts even 0SOG) over Finland, 3-2 (SO)
Tournament Stats Among Panthers Participants
- Marcel Goc, F (GER): 7GP 4A 4Pts -4 14 SOG
- Tomas Fleischmann, F (CZE): 8GP 2G 2Pts even 18SOG
- Brian Campbell, D (CAN): 8GP 2A 2Pts +7 16SOG
- Tomas Kopecky, F (SVK): 8GP 2A 2Pts +2 14SOG
- Nick Bjugstad, F (USA): 10GP 2A 2Pts -2 9SOG
- Jacob Markstrom, G (SWE): 5GP 76SA 71SV 1.58 GAA 2-1-0