Canucks' Kevin Lankinen guides Finland to crucial 4 Nations win over rival Sweden

Making his first start of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in place of the struggling Juuse Saros, Vancouver Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen starred for Finland in a critical 4-3 overtime win against Sweden to keep their gold medal hopes alive Saturday afternoon.

Sweden took a 1-0 lead over Lankinen and the Finns just before the midway point of the first period. Former future Canucks forward Mika Zibanejad capitalized on Finland's sloppy transition play in their defensive zone, picking up a loose puck in the slot and quickly placing it past Lankinen on the fly.

Anton Lundell responded just over two minutes later, and with 14 seconds left in the period, Mikko Rantanen gave Finland a 2-1 lead in the blink of an eye. With that, Filip Gustavsson had allowed two goals on four shots and was promptly pulled by Sweden for Linus Ullmark, who played the rest of the game.

Rasmus Dahlin and Erik Karlsson traded second-period goals to restore Sweden's one-goal lead, but Kaapo Kakko picked up his first point of the 4 Nations in his first game as Barkov tied the game at 3-3 late in the middle frame.

With zeros on the board for both sides in the third period, Finland and Sweden went to overtime, and as the score suggests, Finland emerged as the winners.

Just under two minutes into overtime, Lankinen put on for the Canucks, making a remarkable save on Adrian Kempe's power move before inadvertently pushing the loose puck out of the goal crease with his left pad.

Niko Mikkola alertly spotted Lankinen's rebound and transported it up to Mikael Granlund, who sped down the right wing and beat Ullmark through the five hole to call game. Curiously, Lankinen was not credited with an assist on the goal.

After a rather deflating loss to the United States on Thursday night, Finland's 4 Nations hopes remain alive, but they will need to take care of business against Canada at 10 a.m. Monday morning.

Lankinen finished his first appearance of the 4 Nations with 21 saves on 24 shots and a .875 save percentage and, of course, the win.

On the other side, also representing the Canucks, Elias Pettersson played just 14:10, including 1:53 of power play time, as Sweden's third-choice center. Pettersson recorded zero points and one shot on goal and went 4/9 on his faceoffs. However, Pettersson did draw a key hooking penalty on Barkov in the third period, though Sweden failed to score on the ensuing power play opportunity.