SENSATIONAL SWEDES

`The streak' enters the bubble

Coming soon. The Streak.

There have been a lot of storylines involved in the IIHF world junior championship over the years and as the 10 teams arrived in Edmonton on Sunday, there's already a whole fresh set involved with the bubble version of the tournament soon to be played without fans in the stands at Rogers Place.

But The Streak still rules. Sweden arrived with what is becoming one of the most significant streaks in hockey history. In their last 51 consecutive round robin games in this tournament, the Swedes have won every last one of them.

Fifty-one!

The last time Sweden lost in the preliminary round was in 2006 against the United States in overtime.

The question this year is:

Will the loss of four players and almost their entire coaching staff be able to stop The Streak?

“There's going to be some pressure on us to hold that up,” admitted Jason Pietrzkowski, the Edmonton Oilers video coach on loan to the Swedes for the tournament before he met them in the bubble Sunday.

This year, the Swedes play in the tougher pool, opening on Boxing Day against the Czech Republic, playing Austria on Dec. 28, Russia on Dec. 30 and the U.S. on New Year's Eve.

If you are familiar with The Streak, you are likely aware of the tantalizing twist that comes with it and makes it so fascinating.

While the Swedes specialize in running the table in pool play during the round robin, they also specialize in falling flat on their face in the medal round that follows.

Only twice in the entire

45-year history of the event — and only once during The Streak — have the Swedes won gold.

Canada, with the 4-3 win over Russia in last year's gold medal game, has won 19 times. The Russian/soviet Union/cis teams have won 13, Finland five and the Americans four.

Meanwhile, the mighty Swedes that nobody can beat in the round robin are still stuck on two.

Two!

That's “tva” in Swedish, “dva” in Russian, “kaksi” in Finnish, “zwei” in German and “deux” and “due” in other parts of Switzerland as well.

The Swedes first won gold in 1981. The only other time they won the tournament was the only other time it was held here, the most ballistic hosting of the tournament to date shared by Edmonton and Calgary in 2012 when the team included Oilers defenceman Oscar Klefbom.

In anticipation of The Streak being an early storyline, I'd arranged to speak to Sweden's general manager, Jonas Fransson, and coach Tomas Monten before the Swedes caught their flight with Finland and Russia to Edmonton.

As it turned out, Monten, due to a positive COVID-19 test, wasn't on the plane. He'll be a consulting coach by long distance, ruled out of the tournament.

Fransson says The Streak is an interesting study in several different directions.

“The round-robin streak is a fantastic number. It will never be beaten. But for us, every year we have different teams and the following year, along comes a new one.

“It's not something anybody talks about in our group. I have never heard a player mention it.

“The truth is, the Swedish media is less on it than you guys in Canada. Very few ask about it here at home.”

Monten has his own perspective.

“I hadn't thought a lot about it during my four years as head coach for Team Sweden,” he said. “Twice I expected it to end. But we ended up winning both games.

“Last year against Finland, when Nils Hoglander scored a real crazy lacrosse goal to tie the game, was one.

“We were down again late in the third and came back to tie. And Alexander Holtz kept the streak alive with a goal in overtime. The other one was in 2018 in Victoria, B.C. We had a 4-0 lead over the USA but a great push by the Americans at the end made it 4-4. Adam Boqvist, now of the Blackhawks, won the game in overtime for us.”

One of the coaches involved in the tournament that is taking a special interest in The Streak is Russian coach Igor Larionov.

“That's amazing to have a 51-game winning streak year after year in the round robin. Going back to my career, we won 39 straight going into the Sarajevo Olympics,” he said of the

Red Army team that won gold in both 1984 in Sarajevo and 1988 in Calgary after losing the Miracle On Ice game to the U.S. in 1980 in Lake Placid.

“At one point we won 79 straight.”

Larionov has already looked ahead at the schedule.

“We're playing against them on Dec. 30. I'm looking forward to that game.”

I hadn't thought a lot about it during my four years as head coach for Team Sweden. Twice I expected it to end. But we ended up winning both games.