For King, how Swede it is!
SOCHI, Russia — Twenty-six minutes into Friday's all-Scandinavian Olympic hockey semifinal, Henrik Lundqvist of Sweden was coiled in his cage. Finland's Olli Jokinen was on the left wing, winding and firing from the left circle.
It was a shot from a sharp angle and seemingly not much of a threat, except that the puck somehow slithered through Lundqv ist's pads a nd t r ick led across the line, and though it wa sn' t or ig inally ruled a goa l, t he replays made for a quick overrule.
Finland had the lead, and the man known as King Henrik had made a rare misplay, but neither Lundqvist nor his Sweden mates let the bad news linger, and the result was a hard-fought 2-1 victory over their neighbors and rivals, and a gold-medal game against Canada on Sunday.
“He's been our best player, he's been our MVP," said Carl Hagelin, Lundqvist's teammate here and on the Rangers. "I'm used to seeing him like this. For me it's nothing new."
Said Lundqvist, "It's an amazing feeling to get this opportunity. Overall, I think we played a really solid game. I think we played our best so far in this tournament."
Finland, which upset Russia in the quarterfinals, suffered a major loss before the game even began when goaltender Tuukka Rask was sidelined by the flu. Rask has arguably been the best goaltender in the Games and was immense against the Russians. Backup Kari Lehtonen, of t he Da llas Stars, had 23 saves, and had no shot at Sweden's first goal, scored by Loui Eriksson 11:39 into the second, Eriksson getting a pretty crossice feed and whipping the puck in on the short side. Five minutes later, the Swedes struck on a power play, when defenseman Erik Karlsson onetimed a shot from the blue line. It bounced off Lehtonen's blocker and floated into the net.
A fiercely physical game — Swedish captain Niklas Kronwall made repeated runs at Finnish legend Teemu Selanne — allowed for limited scoring opportunities. Finland had a flurry of them in a 5-on-3 in the first period, but Lundqvist made a sparkling leg save of a Selanne shot that looked sure to find the near post.