Kempe: Sweden 'happy about the comeback' despite loss

Sweden's Adrian Kempe accentuated the positive despite losing 4-3 in overtime to Canada in Wednesday's 4 Nations Face-Off opener.

The Los Angeles Kings forward believed his team was superior for most of the game.

"Obviously you have all the (Canadian) fans at your back and everything, so they came out more excited to play than we were," Kempe said postgame, according to NHL.com's Tracey Myers. "But after 10 minutes in the first period, I think honestly we felt like we were the better team the rest of the game.

"Obviously, we were down two goals going into the third, so it was a strong comeback and we'll take the one point. We're happy about the comeback."

Canada opened up an early two-goal lead on goals by Nathan MacKinnon (56 seconds into the contest) and Brad Marchand (13:15 in). Jonas Brodin got Sweden on the board in the second period, but Mark Stone replied to restore Canada's two-goal advantage.

The Swedes rallied to tie it in the third on goals by Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek, but Mitch Marner netted the overtime winner just over six minutes into the extra frame.

Brodin also took solace in the fact that the Swedes played better as the game progressed.

"The first period, I felt we were a little bit stressed with the puck, but they were coming really hard too and we knew that, especially the first 15 minutes," the Minnesota Wild defenseman said. "But then after that, I thought we did a great job in the second and third.

"We talked about it after first, to calm it down and make some plays. And I thought we did."

Sweden will next face Finland on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, and Canada will battle the United States that evening at 8 p.m. ET. The Americans open their tourney against the Finns on Thursday night.