On "Rivalry Sunday" hockey fans were treated to a unique set of three games.
The matchup between Russia and Czech Republic, United States and Canada, and Finland and Sweden represented the last three gold medal game match ups from 1998, 2002, and 2006, respectively.
The trends of the day looked promising for Finland as each of the previous sliver medalists (Russia and the United States) won the games.
Unfortunately for Finland, they decided to buck the trend.
Team Finland fell 3-0 to archrival Sweden in the final preliminary round game.
Despite a strong start in the first few minutes of the game, Finland took two penalties early in the first period, which lead to a 5-on-3 power play for Sweden that yielded a goal from Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson.
From that point, Sweden took complete control of the game.
Finland was unable to sustain any offensive pressure in Sweden's zone, were turned away repeatedly at the offensive blue-line, and despite being handed five straight power-plays, two of them 5-on-3, could not effectively execute on the power play.
Loui Ericsson added another go ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Matt Hutter
2010 Winter Olympics: Finland Falls Hard To Sweden, but Retains Bye
February 22nd, 2010 by Matt Hutter Leave a reply »
Advertisement