One of these dudes scored two goals. I’m not their mother, so I can’t differentiate. Photo: Mafue/Flickr.

The Swedish team beat the “home ice curse” that has been plaguing the IIHF Men’s World Championships since 1986 with a 5-1 win over Switzerland today.

Switzerland scored first, when the game was less than five minutes old. When one considers that the Swiss had only trailed for about 14 minutes in the previous nine games, and that they had managed to win some tight games over some very good teams (Sweden included), this early lead made all of the nervous nellies (myself included) come out of the woodwork. Luckily, Erik Gustafsson scored for Sweden just four minutes later, tying the game, and essentially re-setting the score to zero. Three minutes later, Henrik Sedin scored an unassisted power play goal to give Tre Kronor a 2-1 lead.

No one would score in the second (despite each team being awarded a powerplay), and the score stayed the same for the first seven minutes of the third period. The Simon Hjalmarsson broke through and scored. Eight minutes later, the hottest Swedish player (I’m talking point streaking, not real life streaking, get your mind out of the gutter) Loui Ericksson scored. Niklas Persson took a penalty a minute later, at which point Switzerland pulled their goalie in the hopes of scoring with a 6-on-4 advantage. Alas, Henrik Sedin exists, and he scored his second goal of the game by shooting the puck into the empty net.

This is the ninth gold medal for Team Sweden at the World Championships. Switzerland made history with their second ever silver medal in this tournament (and the last one came in 1935!)

P.S. If you want to read the official recap (includes the phase “like gorillas from a cage, as the saying goes”), go here.

P.P.S. I gotta give a shout out to my boy, Gabe Landeskog. (He’s not actually mine. But he plays for my team, the Colorado Avalanche.)

Team Sweden will play for the gold medal tomorrow after a 3-0 win over their archrival Finland in the semifinals here at the World Championships. Loui Ericksson scored two power play goals (each assisted by both of the Sedins), and Henrik Sedin added an empty net insurance goal to help the team into the final. Jhonas Enroth made 30 saves for his first shutout of the tournament.

Sweden is considered the host of this tournament (despite the fact that half of the preliminary games were played in Finland, all of the elimination games were hosted in Stockholm). It would be very special to see them win on home ice, in front of all of their fans. However, it will not be an easy task, as Switzerland, their opponent, has won all nine games played in this tournament thus far.

Swedish fans, get ready for the final! Here’s hoping the gold will be paired with the yellow of the Swedish jersey.

Here are some Swedish hockey players. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

The Tre Kronor was successful in their first elimination game of the World Championships. Sweden was playing Canada (in case you didn’t read the title). This was an excellent game to watch, between two very good teams. No one scored in the first period, but there was a nasty kneeing incident between Alex Edler and Eric Staal. Staal had to be taken off the ice, and he never returned after a distressing scene of pain. Just 45 seconds into the second period, Steven Stamkos scored the first goal of the game. (Perhaps Head Coach Lindy Ruff told his players they better get a goal for their fallen captain?)

Nicklas Danielsson evened up the score for Sweden in the third period. Four minutes later, Loui Eriksson scored again for Sweden, giving them their first lead of the game. However, 75 seconds later Claude Giroux tied things again. The game would go into overtime (with no score), and eventually into a shootout. (Interestingly, during overtime, Sweden’s goaltender Jhonas Enroth had an equipment malfunction. Evidently, in the IIHF rules, a goalie cannot get an equipment change and a stoppage of play, otherwise his team is penalized. Jacob Markstrom had to take over the net for a couple of minutes, until Enroth’s equipment was changed and there was a natural stoppage of play. He made three key saves that kept his team in the game.)

This game finished with a four round shootout. After three rounds, the score was tied at one (goals from Loui Eriksson and Jordan Eberle). In the fourth round, Fredrik Pettersson got the call. He started skating from his own goaltender’s blue zone, flew up the ice, and then took a wicked slapshot when he was about 10 feet away from the net. It was one of the most brilliant shootout goals I’ve seen, simply because he absolutely seemed to psych Mike Smith out and it went in with such fire. Jordan Eberle was sent back up, but Enroth stopped him on that, his second shot.

Sweden has moved on to the semifinals, where they will play Finland. That game will be on Saturday, at 7 am ET (if my math is correct…)

Photo: Christine Grabig/flickr

First let me start off with an apology as I’ve missed the last four games played by the Slovaks. Three of them weren’t good as they lost to Latvia, Austria and Russia by scores of 5-3, 2-1 (shootout) and 3-1. It didn’t look good for the boys as they had one final game to play against powerhouse USA. (I’m not just saying that because I’m American…the Americans basically ran through the preliminary round only losing to Russia before their matchup against the Slovaks.)

Yet somehow, a regulation win would guarantee the Slovaks the fourth and final seed in their group. Just 15 seconds into the game, Branko Radivojevic buried one after a misplay by US goalie Ben Bishop and from that point on, it was all Slovakia. It took three and a half minutes for them to double their lead on what wound up being the game winning goal as they cruised to a 4-1 victory.

“They played more desperate than we did, and that’s something we have to take care of. We can’t come out the way we did, especially with the quarter-final coming up,” said Team USA forward Stephen Gionta.

Below are the highlights:

» Continue reading “Slovakia Does It Again: Escapes Preliminaries On Last Day”

I don’t really know why this flag is so small.

Team Sweden went 2-1 in their last three games. There is one more game left in this preliminary round. As the standings are right now, it appears Sweden will make it into the next round. Norway is three points behind, and Denmark is four points behind (although those teams each have two games left). Essentially if Sweden wins on Tuesday they will find themselves in, and if they lose, things will be more questionable.

Sweden beat Nordic rival Norway handily on May 8th, 5-1. Gabriel Landeskog scored two goals, and there were three other goal scorers for Sweden in this game. Unfortunately, Canada dominated the next game, winning three to zero. This was the first game in which Sweden was shut out during this tournament. Today, the team got back on a winning track, beating Slovenia 2-0. Gabriel Landeskog scored again (he’s heating up, which could prove to be a very good thing for Sweden) and Jhonas Enroth earned a shutout.

Overall, I feel good about Sweden in this tournament. I think they have a strong chance if they make it into the next round (especially now that superstars Henrik and Daniel Sedin are on the squad.)

HELSINKI, FINLAND – MAY 7: Russia’s Evgeni Medvedev #82 and Kirill Petrov #90 join their teammates in celebrating the game winning goal during preliminary round action at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/HHOF-IIHF Images)

In what was perhaps the most competitive game of the the tournament thus far, Russia beat Team USA by a score of 5-3. After three games, Russia remains undefeated in the tournament.

» Continue reading “Russia Defeats Team USA 5-3″

Game winning goal scorer right here! (Photo: where-is-gali/flickr)

Slovakia’s first two games went exactly how most people expected – they beat France and lost to Finland. Today, the Slovaks got a true match as they versed a similar team in Germany. Four teams from each group get out of the qualifying round. For the Helsinki group, it is assumed Russia, the United States and probably Finland will move on. The fourth seat is up for grabs which is why today’s match was so important. It wasn’t easy but the Slovaks came out on top.

» Continue reading “Slovakia Wins Back And Forth Affair Against Germany”

Konstantin Kolstov (Belarus) scored the first goal of this game, during the first period. In the second, Oscar Lindberg scored a goal for Sweden that had to be reviewed…because it went into the net so quickly that the referees weren’t sure if it actually crossed the line. Once the play was slowed down, the goal obviously counted. The score remained tied at one for the next 26 minutes. Fredrik Pettersson scored the game winning goal halfway through the third period. Pettersson was named Best Player of the Game for Sweden, while Kolstov was named for Belarus.

HELSINKI, FINLAND – MAY 4: Russia’s Ilya Bryzgalov #30 shaking hands after the game during preliminary round action at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/HHOF-IIHF Images)

In their first game of the tournament, Team Russia had a strong showing, defeating Team Latvia 6-0.

» Continue reading “Goaltending Shines in Russia’s 6-0 Win Over Latvia”

Thanks for all the quotes, Milan Jurcina! (Photo: clyde/flickr)

In their first two games of the qualifying round against France and Finland, Slovakia scored six goals. Unfortunately they all came in the same game. At least they won that one!

Game one was Friday against France. That went about how you would expect it to – the Slovaks built up a 3-0 lead and 24-15 shots advantage through the first 40 minutes with Michal Miklik, Peter Olvecky, Tomas Zaborsky finding the back of the net. Five minutes into the third, it was 5-0 as Branko Radivojevic and captain Miroslav Satan scored power play goals after Brian Henderson (the most non-French name I’ve heard) took a double minor for high-sticking.

» Continue reading “Slovakia Takes 3 Out Of First 6 Points, Splits First Two Games”