Memories of the 6-2 loss to Team Europe are fresh. It happened on Sept. 14 in Washington. It happened because Team Sweden was careless and Team Europe was opportunistic.
Team Sweden's players have vowed that it will never happen again; however, hindsight being what it is, they are happy they have that experience in their memory banks going into the semifinals.
"I think it was a good game to get the feel of them a little bit," defenseman Anton Stralman said. "Definitely we didn't play our best in that game so for sure it was good to get that type of game. You know what they are all about."
Team Sweden is coming off a thrill-a-minute 4-3 overtime loss to Team North America on Wednesday. The pace was fast, intense, like two teams doing sprints back and forth, up and down the ice.
That's nothing close to what Team Sweden expects Sunday. Team Europe has been more of a sit-back team in this tournament, waiting for mistakes with five players back in the zone, content to sacrifice aggressiveness for the sake of winning.
"They really pack it in," left wing Carl Hagelin said.
In a way, Team Europe's style could play into Team Sweden's hands, especially with how good it is at moving the puck from the back end up and how skilled the forwards are at keeping it in the zone to create chances.
"It can, but we have to be smart," Hagelin said. "We can't be composed and think we can make every play that's out there. Sometimes we're going to have to chip and go because I think that's how you can create chances on their 'D'. They have some bigger guys who are really good if they keep you in front of them, but once they have to start turning then you can create some offense and create some turnovers. That's going to be one of the things we have to do."
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 81 saves on 85 shots (.953 save percentage) in his two preliminary-round games. Center Nicklas Backstrom and defenseman Erik Karlsson each had three points. Team Sweden's seven goals were scored by seven different players.
