TORONTO _ Team Europe was the team nobody expected to be in the finals of the World Cup of Hockey. Not hockey analysts and not Las Vegas, which gave it 33-1 odds of winning the tournament.
Europe wasn't even the trendy pick to crash the party. That title belonged to Team North America, the young guns who were all 23 or younger.
But Europe shocked the hockey world Sunday and took down 2014 Olympic silver medalist Sweden 3-2 in overtime to advance to finals.
Tomas Tatar scored two goals, including the winning goal 3 minutes, 43 seconds into overtime.
The best-of-three finals, which will pit Hawks winger Marian Hossa against teammates Corey Crawford and Jonathan Toews of Canada, start Tuesday.
"Nobody would guess we could be in the final," Hossa said. "So it just feels good to be where we're at. Everybody here is really happy."
Europe is a one-time team featuring players from eight European nations outside of Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Sweden. Sweden was a trendy pick to advance to the finals and challenge Canada. But the Swedish team, which featured Hawks center Marcus Kruger and defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, did not quite reach its potential, according to Hjalmarsson.
"Maybe we weren't as good as we thought we were because we hadn't played better than our first game (against Russia)," Hjalmarsson said. "Maybe that was our limit. I don't know. ... We all wanted to play in the finals against Canada and it's a disappointment for sure."
Defense was a strength for both teams, and through the first period there were few high-danger scoring chances. But the game opened up a bit in the second as Sweden got a rebound goal from Nicklas Backstrom at 2:31 and Europe answered with a greasy goal from Marian Gaborik at 16:27. Tatar put Europe ahead in the third with his first goal of the game just 12 seconds into the third period before Erik Karlsson tied it up with a shot from the blue line at 15:28.
But in overtime Europe, refused to play the role of patsy to set up a Sweden-Canada showdown.
"That's a different animal we're going to face (in Canada)," Hossa said. "Everybody has to dig deep to be successful against this team.
"It's a great feeling. We do a couple good things and I think the way we play we deserve where we're at."
