TURIN, Italy, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Nicklas Lindstrom scored the go-ahead goal 10 seconds into the third period Sunday to give Sweden a 3-2 win over Finland for the Olympic hockey gold medal.
After playing dominating hockey and going unbeaten in seven games, Finland came up just short of what would have been its first hockey gold medal.
Sweden won its second gold in four Olympics.
Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves, many of the spectacular variety, and survived a late assault after Finland pulled its goalkeeper with 90 seconds remaining.
Kimmo Timonen put Finland in front late in the first period on a power-play goal and Henrik Zetterberg tied it at 4:42 in the second.
Sweden took its first lead with 6:36 remaining in the second on Niklas Kronwall's power-play goal, but the Finns again knotted the score with five minutes to go in the period on a goal from Ville Peltonen.
"It was unbelievable," said Lundqvist, a rookie goaltender in the National Hockey League. "It was a special game for all of us and a great game. I was really focused in that last period."
