Sochi Olympic Hockey 2014: Finland vs. Sweden Preview

By Adam Rickert on Thursday, February 20th 2014
Sochi Olympic Hockey 2014: Finland vs. Sweden Preview

We will see a rematch of the 2006 Gold Medal Game from Torino as a semifinal game in Sochi as Team Finland takes on Team Sweden for a chance at gold.

These two Scandinavian rivals should collide for some exciting hockey, even if it is a low-scoring game.

Finland's Tuukka Rask and Sweden's Henrik Lundqvist may be the two best goalies in the world right now, and they will each face offenses that are slightly shorthanded.

On the Finnish side, Valtteri Filppula and Mikko Koivu could not even make it to the Olympics as they both were injured in NHL play. Even without two of its top scorers, however, Team Finland showed that it can hang with anyone. It beat Russia 3-1 in a quarterfinal match and took Canada to overtime in the Finns' only loss.

For Sweden, captain Henrik Zetterberg went down with a back injury in his first game of the Sochi Olympics and will miss the rest of the tournament as well as maybe the NHL season.

Another storyline is that this will likely be the last Olympic game for some players that have been involved in this rivalry plenty of times over the years.

For Finland, Teemu Selanne, Sami Salo and Kimmo Timonen could all be playing in their last Olympic game if their team loses.

For Sweden, Daniel Alfredsson, who has been one of the best players in this year's Olympic tournament, is likely playing in his last.

In the end, these two teams are both incredibly experienced and should provide for a great game. Rask may be playing well as of late, but Sweden will likely have an easier time scoring on him than the Finns will on Lundqvist.

Prediction: Finland 1, Sweden 2

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