Photo credit: Lars Dareberg

Washington Capitals 2013 first round pick Andre Burakovsky was fantastic in the 2014 World Junior Championships. The 18-year-old was a point per game player for Team Sweden, scoring three goals and tallying seven points in seven tournament games.

Burakovsky had two shots in Sunday’s heartbreaking loss to Finland in overtime of the gold medal game.

Kent Jonsson of the local Malmo newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet caught up with Burakovsky after Team Sweden’s crushing loss in the Gold Medal game. He was upset.

Friend-of-the-blog Jake Ware has the translation of his comments.

On not meeting down his country’s high expectations:

“It’s just so sad. Empty. Everyone had expected us to win. We wanted to celebrate and have lots of fun afterwards.”

Burakovsky, on what he felt like after Finland scored in overtime:

“Everything went dark, there aren’t a lot of positives right now.”

On the first period:

“We gave up the goal too easily. It wasn’t fair. We were pressing the whole game. We could have started better, it wasn’t great to start with an uphill battle. One goal down after the first shift.”

On Finland’s team defense:

“They were tight in front of their own goal and played great there. We had chances to end it and we should have taken advantage.”

On the support from the Malmo crowd:

“The fans have supported us the whole way, we have really appreciated their support.”

On what the atmosphere is like in the Team Sweden locker room:

“Everyone is sitting alone and not speaking. Everyone is sad, but that’s not strange, we lost a World Junior final.”