head coach: Kent Forsberg

roster: F - Daniel Alfredsson, Mikael Andersson, Ulf Dahlen, Peter Forsberg, Andreas Johansson, Jorgen Jonsson, Patric Kjellberg, Mats Lindgren, Michael Nylander, Mikael Renberg, Tomas Sandstrom, Mats Sundin, Niklas Sundstrom; D - Tommy Albelin, Calle Johansson, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mattias Norstrom, Matthias Ohlund, Marcus Ragnarsson, Ulf Samuelsson; G - Johan Hedberg, Tommy Salo, Tommy Soderstrom.

game results:

ROUND ROBIN
United States    W 4-2
Canada           L 3-2
Belarus          W 5-2

QUARTERFINAL
Finland          L 2-1

game recaps:
Round Robin: Sweden vs United States
Round Robin: Sweden vs Canada

Curse You, Finland!
by Michael Dell, editor-in-chief

Say it ain't so, Petey? Say it ain't so?

Before the Olympics started, LCS Hockey threw its support behind Peter Forsberg and Team Sweden to take the gold. Because, as we all know, Sweden loves the LCS Hockey. And we love Sweden.

Peter Forsberg by Meredith Martini

Yet despite all our thoughts, prayers, and pagan rituals, it just wasn't meant to be. Sweden lost a heartbreaker to arch-rival Finland in the quarterfinal round, ending its dream of back-to- back Olympic gold medals. And somewhere a chimp cried...

The Swedes started the tournament with a convincing 4-2 victory over the United States. The duo of Forsberg and Daniel Alfredsson was exceptional. Whenever these two guys get together they put on a ghetto clinic. They dominated the Americans, with Alfredsson bagging a pair of goals and Forsberg drawing assists on both. It was great to be Swedish.

The next game saw the Swedes fall to Canada, 3-2. After Nicklas Lidstrom opened up the scoring in the first period, Canada rattled off three unanswered goals in the second to take a 3-1 lead. The Canadians nearly ran the Swedes off the ice in the second period, outshooting them 18-6 and physically punishing them from wall to wall. But the Swedes weren't goin' out like no punk, fool. They turned the tables on Canada in the third, using their speed and passing to combat the Canadian brawn. The result was a goal from Mats Sundin and 16-4 advantage in shots. The only thing that prevented the Swedes from tying the score was the brilliant goaltending of Patrick Roy. The Swedes buzzed Roy relentlessly in the final moments, but just couldn't get a puck past him.

Coach Kent Forsberg elected not to pull goaltender Tommy Salo in favor of an extra attacker. A curious decision to say the least. Forsberg's argument was that goal-differential would be a tie- breaker in deciding the top seed in Group A, and the Swedes didn't want to fall further behind Canada by yielding a meaningless empty-netter. He played it safe. Yeah, that's a good call. If, you know, you're a spineless, wishy washy, pansy face. I don't even know what that means. But the point is, you go for the win. Playing not to lose by two goals is kind of, shall we say, "questionable"? Shall we say "gutless"? We shall say gutless.

Tommy Salo by Meredith Martini

The Swedes rebounded from the loss by learnin' Belarus, 5-2. Mikael Andersson, Ulf Dahlen, Niklas Sundstrom, Mikael Renberg, and Sundin found the net. The win clinched the second seed in Group A and created a matchup with Finland in the quarterfinal round. Sweden vs Finland. It just doesn't get any better than that.

But before the Swedes could take on their mortal enemies, the club was dealt a serious blow when defenseman Ulf Samuelsson was kicked out of the tournament. It seems Ulf had a dual citizenship thing happenin' with the United States. And under some obscure Swedish law, that means he is no longer a Swedish citizen and is unable to participate for Team Sweden in the Olympics. That's funny, he still looks Swedish...

Losing Samuelsson on the eve of the game against Finland was extremely detrimental to the cause. Not only was Ulf the club's most physical defender, he was also a leader in the dressing room. Removing him from the equation just prior to the club's most critical contest was jive.

The Swedes went ahead without Ulf and got locked into a defensive struggle with the Finns. Sweden had serious problems trying to initiate offense against a suffocating Finland defense. The game went into the third period without a goal scored. Sweden blinked first. Teemu Selanne converted a two-on-one break, keeping the puck the whole way and wristing a shot past Tommy Salo after faking the pass. Selanne then added a power-play goal to give the Finns a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead.

Knowing that there was no tomorrow, the Swedes began to pressure the Finns all over the ice. The Swedish dominance finally translated into a goal when Forsberg pried a loose puck from a scrum in the slot and beat a startled Jarmo Myllys to make the score 2-1 with just 12 seconds left in regulation. The last dozen seconds were made interesting, but Finland was able to hold on when Forsberg's last-second shot following a faceoff in the right circle trickled through the low slot and wide.

It was bad enough that they lost, but losing to the Finns made this Olympics a disaster for Sweden. Canada, Russia, hell, even Kazakhstan would have been better. It's doubtful Finland will let the Swedes live this one down anytime soon. Coach Kent Forsberg resigned following the loss. So that should give you some idea how serious the Swedes took the defeat.

Sweden didn't have a bad tournament. They were solid in their first three games. But anything can happen in a single- elimination format. Losing Samuelsson was clearly a problem. Whether or not the outcome would have been different if Ulf was around is open to debate, but it was definitely a distraction the Swedes didn't need.

But in the end it was Sweden's inability to score goals that cost them. While Selanne delivered for Finland, Sweden's big three of Forsberg, Alfredsson, and Sundin were held in check. The threesome needed to have a strong game. They didn't. Finland wouldn't let them. Sometimes you have to give the opposition credit.

TURNING POINT: Obviously, losing Ulf Samuelsson was disastrous. He was just too integral a part of this team to go missing.

Nicklas Lidstrom by Meredith Martini

TEAM MVP: Nicklas Lidstrom continued to show why he's the favorite for the Norris Trophy. He was outstanding. Lidstrom is just always in position. He's not overly physical, but his mobility and intelligence always have him in the right place at the right time. In a tournament full of great defensemen, Lidstrom was among the best.

SURPRISE: Gotta go with the Samuelsson thing again. That was definitely a surprise. Who knew Ulfie wasn't a Swedish citizen? Ulf certainly didn't.

DISAPPOINTMENT: Blah blah blah Samuelsson blah blah.

And while all three played well, it was disheartening to see Forsberg, Alfredsson, and Sundin come up empty in the big game. Forsberg only had the one goal the entire tournament, and that came after things were pretty much decided. It's the same old story with Forsberg. He just doesn't score enough goals. But you can't really get mad at him, because even though he isn't scoring he's still playing some exceptional all-around hockey. Aw, where was Joe Sakic when Forsberg needed him? It was up to Alfredsson, Sundin, or even Mikael Renberg, to help Forsberg out by providing the Sakic-esque clutch scoring. But if doing what Sakic does was easy, then there would be a lot more people with their names on the Conn Smythe Trophy.

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