2011 IIHF World Championship Final
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| Date | 15 May 2011 | |||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Orange Arena | |||||||||||||||
| City | Bratislava | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 9,166 | |||||||||||||||
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The 2011 IIHF World Championship final was played at the Orange Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia on 15 May between Sweden and Finland. Finland won the match 6–1 and became world champions for the first time since the 1995 tournament, and for the second time in history. This match was Finland's first final since 2007 and Sweden's first final since 2006.
Finland and Sweden met in the IIHF World Championships final last time in the 1998 tournament in Switzerland. The two-game format final resulted in Sweden's victory 0–1, 0–0.
As two highly ranked neighboring countries, Sweden and Finland have a long-running competitive tradition in ice hockey. Before the game, mainstream media in both countries titled the match "a dream final".
The first period was goal-less, with good scoring chances at both ends. Sweden's Oliver Ekman-Larsson took a penalty at 17:52 for interference, but Finland did not manage to score in Viktor Fasth's goal. In the second period at 4:41, Sweden's Marcus Krüger took a penalty for slashing, but the Swedes were again successful in killing the penalty. After only a minute of five-on-five play, Sweden's Magnus Pääjärvi fired a fierce shot towards Petri Vehanen's net and scored the match's first goal at 27:40 for a 1–0 lead to Sweden.
Two Finnish penalties followed, at 29:15 to Niko Kapanen for hooking, and at 34:25 to Petteri Nokelainen for boarding, but the Swedes did not manage to increase their lead despite a close call.
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