Olympic hockey in Sochi kicks off at noon ET/9:00 AM PT on Wednesday with an exciting matchup that pits the Czech Republic against Sweden.

This will be an extremely interesting game, as the Swedes are one of the top favorites in Sochi while the Czechs could be a dark horse looking to make a name for themselves. The winner of this game will likely end up winning Group C, as Norway and Austria likely do not have enough to challenge either of them.

The goaltending is the biggest mismatch between these two, as Sweden's Henrik Lundqvist may be the best keeper in the world, while Czech Republic's Ondrej Pavelec has been mediocre in comparison to many other NHL goaltenders.

Experience will play a key role for the Czechs, however, as the team boasts veterans like Patrik Elias and Jaromir Jagr. While both are in the very late stages of their respective careers, the two New Jersey Devils teammates have still been able to put up some good numbers on one of the NHL's worst offenses.

If the Czechs want to win this game, they will need to put all sorts of pressure on Lundqvist. They have some talented scorers in David Krejci, Tomas Plekanec and Jakub Voracek, but may lack the depth they need to keep up with Sweden.

The Swedes will probably not have much of a problem scoring on Pavelec even though the Czech defense looks promising on paper. Gabriel Landeskog, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Backstrom, Daniel Sedin, Loui Eriksson, Daniel Alfredsson and Alexander Steen are all extremely dangerous scorers that will pose quite the challenge for the Czech defense.

As if forwards weren't already enough for Sweden, Erik Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Niklas Kronwall are some of the best offensive defensemen in the game and can all be very dangerous on the points.

While Czech Republic is a talented team, Sweden is much deeper and the goaltending advantage could put it over the top in this matchup.

Prediction: Czech Republic 2, Sweden 5