No easy route for the Swedes
By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
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Czech Republic's Vaclav Prospal, right, fights for the puck with Sweden's Daniel Alfredsson during their World Cup hockey match at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday Sept. 1, 2004. (AP Photo/Pressens Bild/Jonas Ekstromer) |
IS A new Nordic hockey order around the corner? Will the split personality Czechs show up as wolves or puppies? And can the Germans cause airline bedlam with another World Cup upset? Just hold off filling in the surviving Euro pool brackets, because the once favoured Swedes might not be coming over at all, despite having a marquee lineup and the best offence in the Cup.
Thank Finnish goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff for shuffling the deck, in what had been a four-team group that was unfolding as expected. Even his Suomi pals were following the old script on Saturday, letting Sweden comer back and score late to rob them of victory.
But Kiprusoff had shut out the Czechs and Germans earlier last week, so the 4-4 tie still enabled the Finns to get top seed on goal differential.
That pits the Swedes against the Czechs here tomorrow, the latter a team that began Cup play like it couldn't care less, but now has 10 goals the past four periods. Can you say Nagano?
Meanwhile, Kiprusoff is carrying himself the same way he did for Calgary in the Stanley Cup final, from making big saves to pulling his mask up between whistles give the death stare to foes. He gave up four goals on Saturday.
But that was mainly because his teammates ignored their own advice, plugged into the crowd and blew a fuse, giving up three power-play goals when up 3-1 and 4-3.
As good a goaltender as Sweden's Mikael Tellqvist can be, Kiprusoff seems to inspire more confidence in his team at this stage.
The Swedes don't need a goalie controversy in a sudden death game, with a growing Canadian-sized media mob trailing them for the next two days. Coach Hardy Nilsson would not address the topic yesterday at practice in Helsinki, even though he pulled Tommy Salo for the same kind of Bill Buckner botch that Tellqvist made on the fourth Finnish goal.
"That first one (Ville Peltonen's pinball shot) was lucky and it put Mikael back on his heels a bit," Swedish defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom said. "But he battled back and made an unbelievable (diving stick) save in the third. We know he can stand on his head for us."
Tellqvist might only need to stand up to the Czechs about 20 minutes, depending on whether they come to play or to sight see. Since they beat Tellqvist three times in the third period last week in a 4-3 loss, all teams watched nervously as they destroyed the Germans, 7-2. Opening game scratches Vaclav Prospal and and Roman Hamrlik have combined for 18 shots on goal and five points.
Coach Vladimir Ruzicka is still flying by the seat of his pants after being a late replacement for the late Ivan Hlinka, making eight lineup changes the past two games. Tomas Vokoun will presumably duel Tellqvist again.
Swedish defenceman Jorgen Jonsson noted the Czechs have been flat in all three first periods they've played, even their rout of the Germans.
"If we play the first 40 minutes like we did against them last week, then I think for sure we're going through to the semi-finals," Jonsson said. "But we know what they can do and we have to be careful."
Those sentiments are usually coming from the Finns, whose national team constantly seems to be in must-win situations to get close to the marbles. Now, all they have to do is get past a winless German side which has four goals to show for three games.
But just ask the Czechs if Deutschland is a hockey pushover. At the '96 Cup, their boarding passes already stamped for North America, the Czechs made what they thought would be a refuelling stop in Garmisch and lost 7-1 to the Germans.
The air tickets with names of the Czech players on them, were handed to the Germans, but as coach Franz Reindl commented "that's a game that might happen every 100 years or so for us."
"It has been determined that we are the strong favourites and it's a new kind of situation for us," Finnish captain Saku Koivu said as they readied to play host to the Germans today.
Coach Raimo Summanen said there were no lingering injuries from Saturday.
