Sweden advanced to the semi-finals at the 2026 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship with a 4-2 victory over Canada.

The defending champion looked to have overcome its opening night wobble after reeling off three big wins to finish the preliminary round.

But despite Canada clawing back a 2-0 deficit to tie the game going into the third, two goals from Nils Bartholsson gave the Tre Kronor the verdict in the final frame.

For Swedish goalie Kevin Tornblom, seeing Bartholdsson scoring for his team was a welcome change after they met recently in the Swedish playoffs. 

“Nils is a very good player and a great guy,” the goalie said. “We played against him in the playoffs with my home team and he had some pretty nasty goals on me.”

The first step towards defeating Canada had to be unlocking a defence that had secured shut-outs in its previous three games. After Timothy Kazda’s winning shot for Slovakia on opening night, the Canadians went 181:17 without allowing a goal ahead of Wednesday’s quarter-final.

But it took Sweden just over two minutes to snap that shut-out streak. Adam Nomme got the puck back to Axel Elofsson on the blue line and his point shot was redirected home by Olle Karlsson.

Goalscorer Karlsson was well aware of how much the play meant. “We got a lot of energy from that early goal,” he said. “I saw Axel on the blue line shoot the puck and I just got net front and got a touch to it. That’s when good things happen when you get pucks to the net.”

Much was made of Johan Rosen’s willingness to reshuffle his offence, with his new Nordmark-Command-Hermansson combo involved in six goals in the previous game against Denmark. The third-line trio in Trencin was another new partnership as the Tre Kronor seek the right balance for secondary scoring behind its freshly-minted strike force.

There was a further unpleasant surprise for Canada as Sweden threw itself into a hard-hitting game that slowed an offence with 22 goals in the preliminary round. And Swedish effort gain a further reward after 15 minutes when Adam Andersson brought play down the right, checked back to feed Ludvig Andersson and saw his captain advance to score from between the hash marks.

But Swedish exuberance led to a Canadian power play late in the first. The penalty kill delivered, despite dangerous moments involving Thomas Vandenberg, but the momentum shifted.

Down by two, Canada regrouped at the intermission. “We had a great talk in the break between the first and second periodswith Drew [Bannister, head coach],” said Maddox Dagenais. “We talked about how our best game is when we’re working, when we’re playing with the puck.”

And early in the second, Canada got a goal back after a lovely piece of skill from Dagenais. Sent clear by Mathis Preston’s pass, he got up close with Tornblom and executed brilliant, looking right then left before stuffing the puck in the corner for his first of the tournament.

That was just the start for an incident-packed session. Sweden had the puck in the net once more, but Alexander Command’s marker was successfully challenged by Drew Bannister’s coaching staff. They spotted Marcus Nordmark wrestling Keaton Verhoeff to the ground in front of Kevin Betts’ net, forcing the goalie to take evasive action and preventing him from attempting a save.

At times the play got scrappy, with repeated skirmishes after the whistle. Sweden’s first power play came and went, and Vandenberg jumped out of the box to collect a stretch pass from Adam Valentini. But Elofsson was alert and got back superbly to deny the forward a clear shot at goal.

Then came a tying goal in the last second of the frame. Tynan Lawrence emerged with the puck after a battle behind the net and fired a pass through a crowd at the front of the net. It evaded everyone and defender Callum Croskery skated in at the back door to score. A review confirmed that his shot beat the buzzer and the teams left for the second intermission deadlocked at 2-2.

“The nerves started to come when they got to 2-2 but I never doubted my team-mates” insisted Tornblom. “We promised each other to give 100%. We know we can beat any team if we play like we should.”

Canada gained momentum at the start of the third, boosted by a needless unsporting conduct penalty for Nordmark.

By the 12th minute of the frame, Canada led the shot count 12-1; Tornblom’s best save came when he dealt with Jaxon Jacobson’s close-up redirect of a Thomas Rousseau shot.

But when Croskery shot the puck over the glass, Sweden’s super line, augmented by Nils Bartholdsson, went out for the power play and made the breakthrough at the other end. Elton Hermansson made the play to set up Bartholdsson for a whip-like one-timer from the edge of the circle. 

Canada had just over seven minutes to save its quest for a World U18s three-peat but ran into a gritty Swedish rearguard. And when Betts went to the bench with two to play, Bartholdsson put his second into an empty net from long range to complete the win.

Although Canada leaves the tournament ahead of schedule, Croskery was looking at the bigger picture. “I got a lot out of it,” he said. “I’m going to remember what this feels like because it stings and it sucks. I don’t want to feel this again so it’s going to be used as motivation.”

Sweden, meanwhile, is looking forward to the final four - a huge turnaround for a team beaten 9-1 by the USA in the preliminary round.

“We were really bad against the USA,” admitted Karlsson. “Now we have taken big steps forward. We came back today and we were really good. When we’re strong on the puck we’re a really good team.”