Per Johan Axelsson was one of seven different members of Team Sweden to score a goal in their 7-3 win over the Czech Republic.

Sweet start, sweet
win for Sweden
By Phil Coffey | NHL.com
Feb. 24, 2006

TORINO, Italy -- Timing is everything, especially in sports. Team Sweden proved that adage quite convincingly Friday, coming up with its best performance of the 2006 Winter Olympics in routing the Czech Republic, 7-3.

Seven different players tallied for the Swedes, who out-scored the confused Czechs in every period and received just enough goaltending from the New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist to get to the gold-medal game.

"I think this is our best game," Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg said. "Beating the Czechs 7-3 in the semifinals is impressive. But we can always be better. In our own end we can be better. When they have the puck, we run around too much."

"This is something we wanted to do big time," Philadelphia's Peter Forsberg said. "We've gone out in the quarterfinals in the last two Olympics and we were driven to be back here."

That drive showed early, as the Swedes set the tone with a goal by Tampa Bay's Fredrik Modin just 34 seconds into the game. The Czechs tied it at 3:11 on a goal by Minnesota's Filip Kuba, but Boston's P.J. Axelsson scored at 13:37 to establish a 2-1 beachhead the Swedes would expand in the second period.

"It was good for us, a great beginning" Modin said. "That was a dream start, but they scored immediately after and on their first shot too. After that, we came out and played hard. Now, we're going to play for the gold medal. We have to prepare for the match and wait for the name of our opponents."

"We did get off to a good start," Forsberg said. "Then we kind of let them back in it, but then we took the advantage back. We played a solid game.

"They came out really strong right from the start, on the first shift," Colorado's Milan Hejduk said. "Overall, they were a better team today. For a while in the second period, we thought we might come back. We scored when we were 5-on-3, then we thought we could still win. But we didn't. It was just a bad game."

Hejduk said the fast opening goals by the Swedes set the tone.

Henrik Lundqvist wasn't spectacular in goal, but he kept enough pucks out of the net to get Sweden the win.

"Of course, down right away," he said. "It takes the momentum out of your game."

"Today isn't a nice day for us," the Rangers' Martin Straka said. "We lost playing against a team that played very well from the beginning. They skated so fast. We had some chances in the second period, but they won."

"This is our best game so far," Forsberg insisted. "And I think we will have to be even better Sunday. I thought we came out hard on the ice and showed that we wanted to win this match and to get one up early was great."

The second period was a nightmare for the goaltenders on both sides. The Czechs' Milan Hnilicka, so strong in the quarterfinal win over Slovakia Wednesday, was lit up by the Swedes. He allowed five goals on 20 shots before being lifted in the second after Sweden had made it 5-1. The second was Lundqvist's rockiest period as well, surrendering two goals on 10 shots.

Vancouver Canucks brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin combined for the goal that made it 3-1 just 1:16 into the second period. Henrik did the scoring honors on this one, with Daniel making the scoring pass. At 3:54, Christian Backman took a pass from Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson and snapped the puck past Hnilicka to make it 4-1. The Jonsson brothers made it 5-1 at 7:54 as Jorgen took a pass from Kenny and scored. That sent Hnilicka to the bench, to be replaced by Nashville's Tomas Vokoun.

The change seemed to break the trance clouding the Czechs. Edmonton's Ales Hemsky scored a power-play goal on assists from the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr and Nashville's Marek Zidlicky at 10:40. Tampa Bay's Vinny Prospal scored an even-strength goal at 11:25 to make a game of it at 5-3.

But Alfredsson scored with a minute left in the second to provide some breathing room at 6-3 and Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom scored on a great one-timer from the right circle at 16:05 to salt the win away.

"That sixth goal was huge," Alfredsson said. "I was pretty happy. They had us on our heels and P.J. (Axelsson) made a great play. I was tapping my stick on the ice to let him know I was there. I was wide open and just picked a corner."

"It took hard work and being on the right side of the puck the entire 60 minutes," Kenny Jonsson said of the win. "We made them go 200 feet every time. They're quick and we forced them to skate."

But to realize their gold-medal aspirations, Jonsson said the Swedes have to be even better come Sunday, especially on defense.

"Gotta get better," he said. "We gave up too many chances in the dangerous zone in front of the net. 'Lundy' made some good saves. We're working hard, but it's gotta get better if we're going to win gold."

"I think that we probably had our best first period out there today," Toronto's Mats Sundin said. "We've had so many ifs and buts in this tournament and we have not had strong starts, so today we focused on trying to get an early lead and it was fortunate that we were able to do that.

"The Czechs are such a great team," Sundin said. "They can hold the puck and are so disciplined, so it was great we got the early lead as their play had to open up."

And then close down.