Bosse Meijer’s overtime goal settled an epic semi-final, sending Sweden to the 2026 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship gold-medal goal at Czechia’s expense.

As the clocked ticked into the final minute of the extras with the game locked at 3-3 when Meijer, promoted to captain in the absence of Ludvig Andersson, struck. The Swedes had a long spell of pressure in Czech territory, with Elton Hermansson quarterbacking the play. When his angled shot was desperately kicked away by Martin Psohlavec in the Czech net, Meijer was first to the rebound and lifted the puck home to settle the outcome.

“It was a big goal,” said Meijer after the game. “I saw that the goalie was laying down and I got the puck. He was standing up so I was trying to shoot it to his weak side and I just saw it go in.”

The Tre Kronor advance to Saturday’s gold-medal game where Slovakia awaits. Czechia faces Latvia for bronze.

Czechia was never behind in regulation. Goals from Petr Tomek and Matej Tomanek gave a 2-1 lead at the first intermission, and Jakub Vanecek added a third soon after the intermission. But Sweden kept in touch on markers from Hermansson and Alexander Command before Wiggo Sorensson tied it up early in the third.
 

That performance made defeat hard to take for Vanecek. “I think we played our best game in the tournament and I think we deserved to win,” he said. “We had a couple of really good chances but couldn’t score the winning goal.”

The overtime loss left Ondrej Ruml pondering what might have been.

“I don’t know how it got away from us,” he said. “In the third period we should have played more smart, but it happens. Then in overtime I hit the post and they scored after that, which kinda sucked.”

The teams made a bright start to the game, with the Czech first line producing some neat interplay while Adam Andersson tested Psohlavec with a backhand shot from close range.

But Czechia’s strike force made the initial breakthrough. Tomek started the move, driving forward from deep in his own territory before dishing off to the right for Tomanek. His shot went through a defender’s legs, unsighting Kevin Tornblom in the Swedish net, and Tomek was first to the rebound to open the scoring in the eighth minute.

It didn’t take long for the Tre Kronor to tie it up. Command won an attacking face-off and Hermansson immediately rifled home a shot from the top of the circle.

The Czechs looked the livelier team and earned the first power play of the game after 14 minutes. That quickly brought the first power play goal as a flurry of shots rained in on Tornblom’s net. Jakub Vanecek could not apply the finish, but the rebound went to Tomanek to make it 2-1.

“We weren’t as good as we hoped in the first period,” admitted Command. “We worked our way back, we had great energy in the group. 

“Overall, I feel like we’ve come together as a team and a team effort always beats an individual performance.”

There were fractious scenes at the end of the session. Matyas Michalek took a shot after the buzzer, angering the Swedish players. After some pushing and shoving, two Swedes and one Czech began the second period in the box.

With Sweden a man down before that incident, it gave Czechia a five-on-three start to the second period. Vanecek parlayed that into a 3-1 lead with an emphatic shot from the top of the circle after Tomek’s fake shot wrongfooted the depleted defence.

Sweden’s penalty troubles continued when Malte Gustafsson went to the box and the Czechs again had a two-man advantage but could not add to the lead.

The momentum remained with Jan Tomajko’s team even at equal strength. The bulk of another big Trencin crowd was behind Slovakia’s neighbour and they enjoyed what they saw from the boys in red.

But Sweden got a lifeline from a goal out of nothing after 27 minutes. The Tre Kronor managed to keep a play alive at the blue line as Command stepped off the bench and into the attacking zone. As the Czech defence struggled to close down the puck, the centre lashed home a devastating snipe from the top of the circle to make it 2-3.

Czechia challenged the play and ended up with a delay of game minor for its troubles. But Sweden still struggled to generate offence and Tornblom was the more active netminder through 40 minutes. 

However, pressure did not bring consequences for Sweden and the Nordic nation tied the scores early in the third. A stretch pass set Wiggo Sorensson on his way to goal and he got inside Vaclav Nedorost before outwitting Psohlavec from close range.

After that, the game turned into an end-to-end battle. The puck rarely remained in centre ice as both sides embarked on a breathless race for the winning goal. Instead of a sprint, it turned into a marathon with the game deadlocked at 3-3 in regulation and going into overtime.

And the extras saw Sweden progress. “We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted,” said Meijer. “But we got stronger and managed to score some goals and win it.”