Finland won the battle of Nordic powerhouses at the CAA Centre on Sunday, beating their Swedish rivals 4-2 by scoring four goals in the third period.

The neighbouring countries have a long World Championship history, and Finland extended their Women's Worlds winning streak over Sweden to six games.

"It's a lot of fun," Viivi Vainikka said of playing Sweden. "There's a lot of friends over there and it's always a nice rivalry to play against them. They're a really skilled team, a lot of good players and it's always tough to play against them and always nice to win."

This game was a significant test for Sweden, who opened with a loss to Germany before going on to beat Hungary—a win they were happy with, but left them hungry for a lot more. Finland, while starting the tournament with a massive 14-1 win, has been similarly working on reaching their peak performance. Both countries are aiming to make the podium and restore their programs to their former glory.

Sweden played with just six defence instead of their usual seven, with Paula Bergstrom out for the remainder of the tournament due to an injury sustained on Saturday against Hungary. Senior Worlds rookie Nathalie Lidman has been called up to take her place, but was not dressed to play.

It wasn’t until 10 minutes in that both teams seemed to find their footing. Sweden’s best opportunity to score was generated by an Olivia Carlsson dump and chase, with her teammates storming the net, but Anni Keisala was solid between the goalposts.

In a number of instances, Finnish players were able to separate themselves from Sweden’s defence in front of Sara Grahn, who was Sweden’s starting goaltender for the second game in a row. Jenniina Nylund and Petra Nieminen both had scoring opportunities as a result of this, with Grahn either deflecting the puck with her shoulder or catching it in her glove. The best play of the period was a silky smooth move in the final minute by Noora Tulus to dodge Sweden’s stick checks and send the puck straight to Vainikka on Grahn’s doorstep.

Hanna Thuvik crashed the net early in the second period to score her first senior World Championship goal and give the Swedes a 1-0 lead. While Sara Hjalmarsson’s initial shot was blocked, Thuvik picked up the loose puck, dragging it around Finland’s defence and dishing it over Keisala’s outstretched pad. Despite back-to-back penalties to Sweden in the minutes that followed, Finland was unable to even the score.

"It was also a part that we were not proud of," Tulus said of Finland's power play in the second period. "We were struggling last game a little bit with the power play and it's a really important part of our game, to make it work. When you get the chance you want to use it."

Sweden entered the second intermission with a 2-0 lead thanks to defender Mira Jungaker. With Emmi Rakkolainen in the box for tripping, Jungaker skated in from the blue line to score five-hole with a wrist shot.

"I usually shoot a slapshot from that point, but I got space and I felt like I had a good time to shoot and just move the puck," said Jungaker. "It felt great. We know that we can play good against Finland and we can win if we want to. But today it wasn’t enough."

Finland came out firing for the third period, tying the score in the first six minutes. Vainikka broke the goal drought with her fourth of the tournament. After a battle on the boards deep in Sweden’s end, Tulus passed the puck to Sanni Rantala on the blue line. Screening Grahn, Vainikka tipped in Rantala’s shot to revitalize Finland.

"We just decided after two periods that now we have to start to play," said Vainikka. "We played not so good in the first and second, and we knew that if we wanted to win, we have to score now, and lucky we did that. When we got that first goal we knew that, okay, we got this. It was a hard day and I think as a team we are really strong mentally."

Ronja Savolainen scored the game-tying goal on Finland’s third power play opportunity, getting open in front of Grahn for Nieminen, who had carried the puck behind Sweden’s net. 

"[Savolainen] is so talented and when she decides to show to everyone how good she is, she can do whatever she wants on the ice," said Tulus. "I'm so proud of her and so happy that she finally got those important goals too. It's also a team sport, so all four lines did a good job the last 20 minutes."

Nieminen wasn’t finished contributing to the scoresheet, giving Finland the lead less than two minutes later with a shot from the high slot.

"I think we did a great first two periods, but then in the third we stopped doing the easy things on the ice," said Jungaker. "We gave their really good players the space that they wanted to have and they scored four goals in the third."

A five minute major for boarding was assessed to Annie Silen with 5:12 remaining, diminishing Sweden's chances of forcing overtime. Sweden's penalty kill was effective—even generating a few shots on Keisala—until Silen had just one minute left in the box, as Savolainen scored her second of the game to give Finland the 4-2 comeback victory.