While the host nation went into the match heavily blamed by the Swedish media for failing to live up to expectations, Denmark were looking to restore morale after their humiliating 7-0 defeat against Switzerland in the semi-final.
After conceding three goals in the first period against Switzerland which straight away left the Danes with a mountain to climb for the rest of the match, Danish coach Mikael Gath had put a lot of focus on strengthening the defense in the first part of the match against the Swedes, and that seemed to well for the Danish visitors as the Swedish favorites only led the shots-on-goal statistics by 6-4 after the first twenty minutes.
The rosters clearly showed that Sweden had the advantage going into the match. The Swedish hosts had a team top to bottom of mostly NHLers (22, to be exact) while the Danes had just two—Nikolaj Ehlers and Jonas Rondbjerg.
At the same time, the Swedes, who are 8-3 in bronze games since the IIHF introduced the playoff format in 1992, had a full day's rest in between the semi-final and the match for the bronze medals while the Danes were in action on Saturday.
That certainly seemed to make the difference as the second period more or less turned into a siege on the Danish goal, as the Danes struggled to clear their own zone during the intense Swedish pressure.
The home side were also eventually rewarded for their tenacity with five minutes gone on the clock in the second period, when Mikael Backlund was left unmarked at the back post to steer home a pass from Adam Larsson.
Backlund then scored his second goal of the game just four minutes later after an assist from Emil Heineman and just two minutes before the end of the period Minnesote Wild's Marcus Johansson was given too much space in front of Danish keeper Frederik Dichow to hammer home a pass from Rasmus Sandin.
The match seemed to be effectively over, when Lucas Raymond made it 4-0 with a short-handed finish three minutes into the final period. But two goals within the space of three minutes from Nick Olesen and Nikolaj Ehlers gave the Danes hope of a sensational comeback until Marcus Johansson restored the Swedish three-goal advantage while Oscar Molgaard was serving a two-minute penalty.
With five minutes left Mika Zibanejad from New York Rangers rounded off a fine Swedish afternoon to make it 6-2 with a long-distance shot with several players blocking the view for Dickow.