WC final: FIN-SWE 2-5, SWEDEN WORLD CHAMPIONS 1992 !!
Staffan Axelsson
1992 World Championships, Czechoslovakia. May 10:
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WC FINAL:
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FINLAND - SWEDEN 2-5 (0-1,0-3,2-1)
1st - SWE 0-1 Peter Forsberg 4 (Johan Garpenlov,Mats Sundin) 10:35 (pp)
2nd - SWE 0-2 Mikael Andersson 1 4:48
SWE 0-3 Roger Hansson 3 (Anders Huss) 9:14
SWE 0-4 Lars Karlsson 2 (Patric Kjellberg) 11:05
3rd - FIN 1-4 Timo Peltomaa (Mikko Makela) 13:44
FIN 2-4 Timo Jutila (Timo Peltomaa,Mikko Makela) 16:44
SWE 2-5 Arto Blomsten 4 19:04 (en)
Shots on goal: FIN 14 6 13 - 33
SWE 9 16 9 - 34
Penalties: FIN 2*2min, SWE 2*2min
Referee: Kevin Muench, Canada.
Attendance: 14,000
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TEAM SWEDEN WORLD CHAMPIONS 1992 IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA!!!!!!!!!!!! YYIIHHAAWW!!!!
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Who would have thought that before this tournament started! No one.
And especially after the games they played in group A. The first game against
Poland 7-0 was good but then 0-0 vs Italy, 2-5 vs Germany, 1-3 vs Finland and
4-4 vs USA. The Newspapers totally ripped these players apart. "Good night,
Team Sweden!" and "This is the worst team Sweden has had in a WC ever!"
were headlines in the newspapers. But deep down inside these players felt
that they could play much better than they had showed so far. A remarkable
disciplined and tactically perfect game vs Russia in the quarter finals was
the beginning of the success. The players got their confidence back and these
young players were hungry to show the Swedish people and the press that they
are a good team. 4-1 vs Switzerland in the semi was an easy victory. Then
the final: Another tactical victory for coach Conny Evensson and his players.
Finland had won 7 games in a row (which is quite an achievement) before this
final and of course, the more they won the closer a defeat would come.
Finland made some small errors and their excellent goalie Ketterer couldn't
quite play at the same level as before. No, it was Tommy Soderstrom in the
Swedish goal that had the superb night. He was absolutely excellent and
the Finnish players, who scored by far the most goals in this WC, started
to get nightmares.
1st period: Finland started out best and had a couple of good opportunities.
Sweden played a little bit more defensively and waited for mistakes. Sweden
got a 2on1 breakaway situation and the Finnish defenseman had to take the
penalty in order to prevent a goal. On the power play, the Swedish first
line could get some pressure. Mats Sundin passed the puck to Peter Forsberg,
who was behind the goal. Peter skated around in front, at the same time as
Johan Garpenlov screened Laukkanen in front, so Peter shot the turnaround
shot past Ketterer, 1-0. The Finnish coach Matikainen must have not seen
the Swedes semi final vs Switzerland because it was the exact same goal
by the exact same line.
2nd period: The Swedes continued to put pressure on the Finns. And at 4:48
a Finnish defenseman (Ruotanen?) made a crucial mistake. He simply gave away
the puck to Mikael Andersson who skated towards goal and somehow shot the
puck between Ketterer's pads and the puck barely made it over the goal line.
After 9 minutes, Anders Huss got the puck in the neutral zone, entered the
Finnish zone and saw Roger Hansson coming at full speed on the left side.
Anders passed the puck to Roger who put the puck high in the Finnish goal,
3-0. 2 minutes later it was time again, Patric Kjellberg fired a shot that
Ketterer could save with his pad but he left a rebound and Lars Karlsson
could backhand a shot past Ketterer, 4-0. 4-0, I mean four-nothing, I couldn't
believe my eyes and my ears. It wasn't supposed to be this easy. But Tommy
Soderstrom played great in the Swedish goal and finally it seemed as the
Swedes regained their ability to score (which had really been lacking
previously in this tournament).
3rd period: The Swedes pulled back in order to control their lead. And the
Finns came closer. Mikko Makela made a good effort as he skated around
the Swedish goal and managed to deliver a shot despite being checked. Timo
Peltomaa picked up the rebound and Tommy Soderstrom had no chance, 4-1.
The Finns realized they had a chance and put hard pressure on. Timo Jutila
got the puck at the blue line, advanced towards goal, faked a shot, waited
until the Swedish player went down, skated around him and put the puck
into net. Beautiful goal, 2-4. At this point things started get a little
nerve wracking. More than 3 minutes left and only a two goal lead. Finland
pulled the goalie Ketterer with one and half minute remaining and they got
control of the puck in the Swedish zone. They shot a couple of dangerous
slap shots but somehow Arto Blomsten managed to get the puck. He skated
towards the Finnish goal, very slowly, and no one attacked him as he entered
the Finnish zone, he fired the shot in the empty net. Arto is BTW born
in Vaasa, Finland and lived their for 4 years. It was a fact, SWEDEN is
World Champions again. They defended their title against all odds.
The whole team played great in this game. The fact that each Swedish line
each had a goal indicates this. Coach Conny Evensson used excellent
tactics that the Finnish coach Pentti Matikainen could not answer.
The whole Swedish team deserves praise for this effort but I want to
give extra much credit to a couple of players:
TOMMY SODERSTROM, the goalie played excellent in the games when he really
needed to. The quarter final vs Russia and the Final vs the Finns were
excellently played. When playing like that he is one of the best (if not
_the_ best) in the whole world.
PETER FORSBERG, the kid is only 18 years old and has been Team Sweden's
overall best player in this WC!!!!! He scored the first goal in the final
and led the way. He is my personal favorite and he'll do great in Philadelphia
next (?) season.
MATS SUNDIN, the player who was expected to be our gold hero like last year.
He managed to handle the pressure and scored the important 1-0 goal vs
Russia.
Coach Conny Evensson will now take on a coaching job in Switzerland and
assistant coach Curt Lundmark will take over. It will of course be very
hard to repeat this achievement in the future but at least this proves
that Sweden has great young players and that we are competitive with
the best nations in Europe in that area.
I don't know what else to say than: This is f**king incredible!!
God, I'm happy!!!! WWWWHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(excuse my language)
Now I'm off to welcome and celebrate our heroes at the center of Stockholm!
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THE WORLD CHAMPIONS:
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Pos. # Name Team Born # of WC-golds
=== == ==== ==== ==== =============
G 30 Tommy Soderstrom Djurgarden 07/17/69 2
G 35 Peter Aslin HV 71 09/21/62 1
G 1 Hakan Algotsson Vastra Frolunda 08/05/66 1
D 2 Petri Liimatainen AIK 07/20/69 1
D 5 Fredrik Stillman HV 71 08/22/66 2
D 6 Arto Blomsten Djurgarden 03/16/65 1
D 7 Tommy Sjodin Brynas 08/13/65 1
D 8 Kenneth Kennholt Djurgarden 01/13/65 2
D 22 Joacim Esbjors Vastra Frolunda 04/07/70 1
D 25 Calle Johansson Washington Caps 02/14/67 2
RW 9 Peter Ottosson Farjestad 09/04/65 1
RW 13 Mats Sundin Quebec Nordiques 02/13/71 2
LW 14 Roger Hansson Malmo 07/13/67 1
RW 15 Patrik Carnback Vastra Frolunda 02/01/68 1
LW 16 Michael Nylander AIK 10/03/72 1
C 17 Daniel Rydmark Malmo 02/23/70 1
C 18 Jan Larsson Brynas 09/09/65 1
LW 20 Johan Garpenlov San Jose Sharks 03/21/68 2
C 21 Peter Forsberg MoDo 07/20/73 1
RW 26 Anders Huss Brynas 04/06/64 1
LW 27 Patric Kjellberg AIK 06/17/69 1
C 28 Lars Karlsson Farjestad 08/18/66 1
LW 29 Mikael Andersson Hartford Whalers 05/10/66 1
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Staffan
--
/\ /| TEAM SWEDEN! World Champions '87 '91 '92
\ /-| Sverige! VM-Guld 1992 !!!!
\_)taffan / |xelsson Go Rangers and Pens ! :)
#etx...@ufsa.ericsson.se# r.s.h net contact for the Swedish Hockey League