Buffalo Sabres: Bronze Medal Game turns into the Rosen and Sjodin show

Buffalo Sabres prospects Isak Rosen and Linus Sjodin took matters into their own hands and defeated Czechia to clinch the Bronze. 

Before Sweden and Czechia faced off in the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship’s Bronze Medal Game, Buffalo Sabres fans thought they would be treated to a showdown between prospects Isak Rosen and Jiri Kulich. Instead, Linus Sjodin, who had exactly zero points throughout the tournament, scored the game-sealing goal for Sweden.

In the above video, Sjodin took a cross-ice pass, drifted toward the net, found himself one-on-one with the goalie, and found twine, putting Sweden up 3-1 late in the third period. While Sjodin finally got one on the board, Rosen continued his dominance in this one, scoring his fourth goal of the tournament.

Buffalo Sabres prospects Isak Rosen and Linus Sjodin put on a show in Sweden’s 3-1 win over Czechia

With the game tied at one, Rosen found the back of the net off of a face-off. On the ensuing play, and what a play it was, center Theodor Neiderbach snuck one back to Rosen, who was positioned just behind the circle.

The former first round pick cut to his left, found a lane between two Czechia players, and drilled it home, returning the advantage back to Sweden. The video below shows you that this was a designed play that could not have gone any better.

For a player not well-known for his production prowess, Rosen showed up for this tournament, with five total points (4 + 1). His performance has given Sabres fans hope that he will eventually live up to his status as a 14th overall pick, and that what we saw is a foreshadowing of what he is capable of doing for the upcoming season in Rochester.

The 2022 IIHF World Juniors was the latest significant offseason event for the Sabres, with Sjodin, Rosen, and Kulich representing Sweden and Czechia, respectively. Now, the countdown to the Prospects Challenge begins, with training camp and preseason on the horizon. It’s that time of year again….

(Statistics provided by IIHF.com)