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Swedes going for gold
The Swedes will face either Russia or Finland Sunday in the gold medal game.
TURIN, Italy (CP) -- Twelve long years after its greatest Olympic moment, Team Sweden is back in the gold medal game.
Daniel Alfredsson and P.J. Axelsson each scored a goal and set up another as the Swedes routed the Czech Republic 7-3 in the semifinals on Friday, advancing to Sunday's gold-medal game against Finland. "Hopefully, we can play one more great game," said Alfredsson.
Alfredsson was 21, watching on television with his parents, when Peter Forsberg scored in a shootout to give Sweden's its only hockey gold medal at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.
Now, the Swedes have a chance to make their country proud again.
"That (1994) win was the biggest for sure," he said. "The way it ended, too, with the penalty shot goal and the big save after. They made a stamp of it for a reason, I guess."
What was expected to be a tight-checking semifinal turned into a romp for Sweden as starting goaltender Milan Hnilicka struggled and the Czechs played an unusually loose defensive game before 8,071 at Palasport Olympico.
"They had lots of room in the middle and that was the difference," said Czech defenceman Tomas Kaberle. "They had a lot of open, one-time shots and it was difficult to defend.
"You can't say it was goaltending. It was all of us. The whole team."
The Czechs will play Russia, a 4-0 loser to Finland in other semifinal, for the bronze medal on Saturday.
"A bronze medal would be nice too, but it's a big disappointment," added Kaberle.
Fredrik Modin, Henrik Sedin, Christian Backman, Jorgen Jonsson and Tomas Holmstrom also scored for Sweden.
Filip Kuba, Ales Hemsky and Vaclav Prospal scored for the Czech Republic, the 2005 world champions.
The Swedes have had little but disappointment since their 1994 Olympic win and hit rock bottom at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City when they lost 4-3 to lowly Belarus in the quarter-finals. They also lost in the quarters at the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, the first with full NHL participation.
"It means a lot," said defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom. "It's a huge thing being in the final again and just having a chance to play for the gold medal."
Goaltending has been headache for the Czechs. No. 1 Dominik Hasek was injured nine minutes into their tournament opener. Tomas Vokoun took over in goal but was pulled in favour of Hnilicka after allowing three goals in the first period of a 3-2 loss to Canada.
Hnilicka was sharp as the Czechs posted a quarter-final win over Slovakia, but he was weak against Sweden.
It didn't help that the Czechs, who normally play a disciplined trap, left wide open spaces for the Swedes to breeze through the neutral zone and blast shots from prime scoring areas.
"We wanted to try to get more shots at the net, especially with their goalie," said Lidstrom. "We heard that he might leave some rebounds.
"Especially in the first period, they were backing off more than we anticipated," he added. "We thought they'd play tighter in the neutral zone, but we were able to skate through the neutral zone with good speed."
The Swedes scored on their first shot on Hnilicka as Forsberg carried the puck into the Czech zone and fed Modin for a one-timer inside the near post only 34 seconds into the game.
It was Henrik Lundqvist's turn to give up a weak goal at 3:11 when Kuba's medium-speed shot trickled between his pads and into the net.
But Axelsson put Sweden back in front at 13:37, redirecting Lidstrom's a diagonal pass from the left point over Hnilicka.
The Swedes piled on three more goals in the opening 7:54 of the middle period to chase Hnilicka in favour of Vokoun.
Henrik Sedin banged in the rebound of brother Daniel's shot on a two-on-one at 1:16, Backman scored on a long shot that Hnilicka didn't see at 3:54 and Jonsson redirected a shot from in front at 7:54 on a power play.
The Czechs didn't lie down. Hemsky knocked in a rebound off the end boards on a power play at 10:40 and Prospal lifted a nifty backhand over Lundqvist from in close at 11:25.
A backbreaker goal came at 19:00, as Axelsson took the puck into the Czech zone, beat defenceman Pavel Kubina for the puck behind the net and fed Alfredsson for a 6-3 lead.
The Swedes protected their lead in the third period and allowed few good chances in what was a quiet game for Czech star Jaromir Jagr.
Holmstrom added another goal with 3:55 left to play on a feed from Henrik Zetterberg.
Three stars - 1. P.J. Axelsson, make the key play on two important goals; 2. Nicklas Lidstrom, a solid effort with a new defence partner; 3. Daniel Alfredsson, an important goal and strong two-way game.
Notes - The Swedes shifted Jonsson onto a line with Daniel and Henrik Sedin and put the twins' former linemate Mikael Samuelsson on an all-Detroit Red Wing line with Zetterberg and Holmstrom. ... Niklas Kronwall saw his first Olympic action replacing injured Mattias Ohlund. ... It was only the second Olympic meeting between the two countries since the Czechs split with Slovakia. Sweden beat the Czechs 2-1 in round robin play in 2002.
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Not Finnish-ed yet
Finland heads into Sunday's gold-medal game with an immaculate 7-0-0 record.
TURIN, Italy (CP) -- There's one more upset left for Finland and it would be the sweetest of all.
The upstart Finns will meet rival Sweden for Olympic gold in men's hockey after stunning favoured Russia 4-0 in the semifinals Friday, reaching the final for the first time since medal-round play was instituted before the 1992 Games.
Next up: Final against Sweden
Swiss leaguer Ville Peltonen, Tony Lydman of the Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu and Olli Jokinen of the Florida Panthers scored for Finland, a perfect 7-0-0 in the Olympics despite losing seven NHLers off their original roster before the puck was dropped for the first game.
The Swedes thumped the defending IIHF world champion Czech Republic 7-3 in the earlier semifinal to set up a Sunday final few had ever dreamed of.
"Sweden and Finland, that's huge," said star Swedish blue-liner Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings. "We've had great battles in the past."
The Swedes and Finns last met for gold at the 1998 world championship, Sweden prevailing for its last world title to date. But the Finns beat Sweden for gold in 1995 to capture the only world title in its history. Finland has never won Olympic gold, its best a silver at 1988 in Calgary.
Before dreaming of gold the Finns had to dispose of the tournament's most dangerous offensive team. And what a job Finland's defensive system did on the high-powered Russians, smothering super Washington Capitals rookie Alexander Ovechkin as well as the top line of Montreal's Alexei Kovalev, Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk.
The Finns, just like they did in a 2-0 win over Team Canada during the round-robin, played a tight five-man unit in the neutral zone and picked off passes Russian defencemen tried to put on the sticks of their skilled forwards. They also collapsed as a five-man box in front of Philadelphia Flyers rookie goalie Antero Niittymaki, who was solid but was helped by his teammates blocking shots and clearing rebounds.
The Russians had a glorious chance to make a game of it with a 5-on-3 power play for 1:49 late in the second period, but barely threatened despite a mezmerizing collage of talent on the ice consisting of Ovechkin, Kovalev, Kovalchuk, Datsyuk and Pittsburgh's Sergei Gonchar.
Russia, which beat Canada 2-0 in the quarter-finals, was hoping to reach its first Olympic final since 1998 in Nagano when it lost to the Czechs but instead will face those same Czechs for bronze Saturday. Russia beat Belarus for bronze at Salt Lake City four years ago.
The veteran Peltonen, a fixture on Finland's national team over the last decade, opened the scoring 6:13 into the game on a power play when he deflected a Kimmo Timonen point shot past a screened Evgeni Nabokov.
The tight-checking Finns then sat back and held the Russians at bay until Ovechkin undressed Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Aki Berg and went walked in alone on Niittymaki but the Flyers netminder stoned him.
The Finns hit the post twice before the period was over, outshooting the Russians 11-9.
It was more of the same in the second period, Russia frustrated by Finland's trap and unable to break through.
Koivu then dug the puck out of the corner at 9:33 of the period and fed it back to Lydman, the Buffalo Sabres defenceman drilling a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle that beat Nabokov top corner on the glove side. Selanne jumped for joy in celebration as the Finns pounced on Lydman. The upset was in the making.
The Finns felt they needed to capitalize on the power play in order to have a chance to win and they did it again at 13:51 of the second period, Koivu knocking in a rebound off the back boards past a sprawled Nabokov to make it 3-0. What few Finnish fans were on hand, surrounded by thousands of Russians, danced wildly in the stands as they contemplated what could be.
The result was no longer in doubt when Peltonen fed Jokinen on a 2-on-1 break midway through the third period, the Panthers centre one-timing the nice pass past a helpless Nabokov.
Perhaps showing off the parity in men's international hockey, six different countries will have now paired off in the gold medal final since the NHL began participating in 1998, the Czechs beating Russia at Nagano, Canada over the U.S. in 2002 at Salt Lake City and now the big Scandinavian rivalry.
Notes: Finland lost 3-2 to Canada in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey final at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. ... Russia was down to 11 forwards after Evgeni Malkin served his one-game suspension for attempting to kick Canada's Vincent Lecavalier in Wednesday's quarter-final game. Joked Russian GM Pavel Bure before the game: "We've got an extra roster spot so maybe I'll go change now." ... Montreal teammates Koivu and Kovalev met at centre ice before the game for the traditional exchange of national pennants but there were no smiles or words exchanged. They had their game faces on. ... Finnish defenceman Sami Salo is out of the Games with a shoulder injury he suffered in Wednesday's quarter-final win over the U.S. but cheered on his teammates from the stands. Finnish leaguer Lasse Kukkonen replaced him in the lineup.
