Jeremy Swayman
Jeremy Swayman boosted his business at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Championships on Saturday.
In addition to his usual work stopping pucks (20 saves), the Team USA goaltender from Anchorage added an assist to his rink repertoire by starting the play that resulted in Adam Gaudette’s overtime snipe to furnish the Americans a 3-2 victory over Sweden in Tampere, Finland.
Swayman kickstarted a 2-on-1 rush that culminated with T.J. Tynan’s cross-ice pass that Gaudette buried with a one-timer from the left circle with just 12 seconds left in the five-minute OT. He beat Linus Ullmark, Swayman’s goaltending partner with the NHL’s Boston Bruins.
The preliminary-round victory boosted the Americans to 4-1-0 entering Monday’s game against Czechia and David Pastrnak, Swayman’s Bruins teammate.
This is Swayman’s first run with a senior national team and he’s off to strong start. He stopped 17 shots in his senior debut Thursday, a 3-0 win over Great Britain. Not surprisingly, Sweden proved a more difficult opponent in a game in which all four goal scorers and both goalies were active NHLers.
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin opened the scoring for Sweden just 2:28 into the game. Ottawa Senators forward Gaudette – Twitter handle: @Hockey_Gaud – countered less than six minutes later. Winnipeg Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt gave the Americans a 2-1 lead off Gaudette’s power-play feed deep in the second period before Los Angeles Kings forward Carl Grundstrom generated the third-period equalizer for Sweden. The Americans successfully challenged an apparent Sweden goal in the second period and won that appeal when the play was ruled offside.
Swayman and Ullmark greeted each other at the red line during warmups. The two were Boston’s goaltending tandem this past season, when they also became a GIF with their choreographed postgame celebration hug after each victory.
Swayman, who in two games owns a 0.96 goals-against average and .949 save percentage, isn’t the only Alaska connection in the tournament. Denmark goalie Sebastian Dahm (0.93, .947) played for the now-defunct Alaska Aces of the ECHL in the 2009-10 season.
Also, former Alaska Aces forward Ben Lake (2015-2017) is playing for Great Britain in the tournament.