Team Sweden's last game of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Monday was "meaningless" only in the context of the standings.

After Sweden dropped its first two games in overtime against Canada and then Finland, it needed a regulation win over the U.S. to close out round-robin play and the earlier Canada-Finland game to be decided in overtime in order to play for the championship later this week. But when Canada won the afternoon game in regulation, it punched its ticket to the title game and eliminated Sweden.

Sweden still found meaning in its last game of the tournament, though -- after two disappointing overtime loses, players were motivated to leave Boston with a win. And they got it, beating the U.S. 2-1.

"The game didn't mean what we were hoping it would," Erik Karlsson said after the win. "It's a different situation. But I think we did a good job all day of staying with it. Even when we found out that Canada beat Finland and we had nothing to play for really, we still told ourselves that, it's a meaningful game for us in here. I think that we showed that right from the start."

Chris Kreider gave the Americans an early 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the game, but Sweden wasn't deterred. Gustav Nyquist scored the equalizer 13 minutes later off a tip-in of a Karlsson shot, and Jesper Bratt added a goal in the final minute of the first to gain the lead. Goaltender Samuel Ersson, having learned he was starting late in the day only because Linus Ullmark was ill, locked things down and finished with 32 saves on 33 shots.

Karlsson said he believed the Swedes showed that the game wasn't "meaningless" to them, and Mike Sullivan saw just that.

"Give Sweden credit," Sullivan said. "They played hard also, they’re a really good team, they competed hard. For a game that, for all intents and purposes, didn’t have significance with respect to the tournament, I thought there was a lot of professionalism from both sides with how hard the groups played.”

It was a disappointing end result for Sweden, but there was much to like about the pair of Penguins on Sweden's roster. Rickard Rakell didn't play in the finale, sitting out with an illness, but he was consistently noticeable in his willingness to go to the net, and earned high praise from coach Sam Hallam in his decision-making. Karlsson finished with a goal and two assists in three games for the second-most points of any defenseman in the tournament. Hallam praised his decision-making too, telling me that he saw Karlsson "join the rush -- not every time, but when it's a good opportunity" and bring a calm, composed presence to the blue line.

I asked Karlsson if a good individual performance like his can be a "boost" for himself as he finishes the regular season, and he said he hopes that's the case.

"It's been fun playing," Karlsson told me. "It's been really good hockey, and it's an experience that is hard to come by. I'm very happy that I got to be here. Obviously we didn't end up where we wanted to go. That hurts, but at the same time, you get to take a lesson from it. And I think that overall, we understand how tight it is. We lost two games in overtime. Next time we play these guys, hopefully, we will be under different circumstances where hopefully this experience will help."