Sweden, Finland set to renew bitter rivalry at Olympics

MILAN -- It was here in Italy, two hours away, 20 years ago, that the biggest game took place in the long rivalry between Team Sweden and Team Finland.

One team is happy to look back entering the Sweden-Finland preliminary round game at Santagiulia Arena on Friday (6:10 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI TOU.TV, CBC Gem, TSN, RDS) at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

The other, not so much.

Sweden defeated Finland 3-2 in the gold medal game at the 2006 Torino Olympics, with goalie Henrik Lundqvist making a huge save on forward Olli Jokinen in the final moments.

The Swedes on the current roster are well aware.

"They talk about it," Sweden coach Sam Hallam said after practice Thursday. "They know about it. They've seen all the clips. They've seen the goals. They've seen the last minute. It's a huge game. It's like Finland's world championship in '95. It's one of those games, one of the biggest games in Swedish hockey history."

Finland defeated Sweden 4-1 to win the 1995 IIHF World Championship in Stockholm. But the loss in Turin was bitter, even though the silver medal was the Finns' best finish in an Olympics involving NHL players.

"It was a heartbreaker," said Finland forward Mikko Rantanen, who was 9 years old then. "I remember I was at home with my family watching it, probably wearing a Finnish jersey and being emotional after we lost."

You must understand how important this rivalry is to each country -- and to the history of Olympics with NHL players.

"I think it's something that's been going on for longer than I can remember," Sweden defenseman Erik Karlsson said. "We grew up with a big rivalry between Finland and Sweden.

"I think that we have a lot of similarities, but obviously, we're very different people. And you know, over the years, you cross the paths with a lot of great players and coaches and philosophies, and we try to steal what we can from each other and adapt and move on. It's something that goes way beyond hockey as well, I think."

This is the sixth Olympics with NHL players and the first since Sochi in 2014, when Sweden defeated Finland 2-1 in the semifinals.

Four players on Sweden's current roster played in that game: forwards Marcus Johansson and Gabriel Landeskog, and defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Karlsson.

Two players on Finland's current roster did: forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Olli Maatta.

Guess which country has won the most medals in the previous five tournaments with NHL players? It's not Canada, which has won three, all gold. It's Finland, which has won four -- one silver and three bronze.

Two countries have won gold other than Canada: Czechia, in Nagano in 1998, and Sweden.

When Sweden and Finland met in the 4 Nations Face-Off last season, Granlund scored 1:49 into overtime to give the Finns a 4-3 win.

"It's awesome," Granlund said. "All the players, we all love to play these games, and they're always tight games," he said. "Yeah, it's going to be a fun one for us players, but for all the Finns and Swedes [at home] too. There's a lot of people watching these games, so these are always exciting games."

Rantanen said that was probably the Finns' best game of the tournament.

"It's so much fun always to play Sweden," he said. "… They're a really good team, and the history goes back a really, really, really long way. It's always exciting to play, even though they're a really good team, so we've got to play well."

This Olympic tournament has 12 teams divided into three groups. Each team plays three games within its group in the preliminary round, determining the seeding for the qualification round. The top four teams overall receive a bye into the quarterfinals.

Group B play opened Wednesday with Slovakia defeating Finland 4-1 and Sweden defeating Italy 5-2.

"Somehow, it always seems that for either country to do well, we have to go through each other," Karlsson said. "In any big tournament, that's kind of how it's been throughout the years, throughout the decades. At some point, you're going to have to beat each other, and whoever wins that game usually has lots of success."

Hallam said the key in a Sweden-Finland rivalry game is not necessarily star power.

"You can always look at the players and the big names," Hallam said. "Both of us have them. Usually, it comes down to structure and work ethic, the battles. The team that can stay smart in that high-tempo, high-physical environment is probably the team that is going to win tomorrow."