From: etxonss@ufsa.ericsson.se (Staffan Axelsson)
Subject: Team Finland - Team Sweden, December 14
Organization: Ericsson Telecom, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 09:09:43 GMT


 Played in Helsinki, Finland, December 14:

 TEAM FINLAND - TEAM SWEDEN  3-3 (0-1,2-1,1-1)

 1st - SWE 0-1 Mikael Renberg	(Thomas Rundqvist,Fredrik Stillman)   8:43 (pp)
 2nd - FIN 1-1 Petri Varis	(Jari Korpisalo)		      2:36
       SWE 1-2 Mikael Renberg	(Arto Blomsten)			      4:33
       FIN 2-2 Kari Harila	(Mika Alatalo)			      7:31
 3rd - FIN 3-2 Jari Korpisalo	(Rauli Raitanen)		     13:09
       SWE 3-3 Jonas Bergqvist	(Tomas Jonsson,Fredrik Nilsson)	     17:22 (pp)

 Penalties: Fin 2*2min, Swe 2*2min
 Attendance: 6,694
 Referee: Galinovski, Russia

 Mikael Renberg opened the scoring on a power play opportunity. The Finnish
 defensemen must have thought the puck left their own zone because all of
 a sudden two Swedish players were alone with Finnish goalie Ari-Pekka 
 Siekkinen. Stillman got the puck at the blue line, passed it on to Rundqvist
 who in his turn passed to Renberg, 0-1. Like yesterday, the Swedes played
 a good first period.
 The equalizer was a beauty. Korpisalo entered the Swedish zone on the left
 side, made a sudden stop, passed a hard pass to Varis who just deflected
 the puck past Swedish goalie Hakan Algotsson. The Swedes regained the
 lead at 4:33, again by Mikael Renberg. A pass back to Blomsten at the blue
 line, Blomsten slap shot, rebound by goalie picked up by big Renberg, 1-2.
 If the first Finnish goal was a beauty, the second was even better. Harila,
 who didn't play yesterday, entered the Swedish zone on the left side, made a
 *hard* slap shot that went in high on Algotsson's glove side. Both teams
 played very well in the second period.
 The Finns got the lead, for the first time in the game, in the third period.
 Raitanen's shot deflected on a Swedish player, and bounced in the
 back boards out in front of goal. Korpisalo one timed the puck, 3-2. Perhaps
 a bit fortunate but it was well deserved as the Finns played very well in the
 third. The Swedes could however equalize the game in the third, again on a
 power play. Fredrik Nilsson made a cross ice pass at the blue line to Tomas
 Jonsson, who saw Bergqvist in front of the net. Jonsson made a a pass that
 Bergqvist had no trouble deflecting over goalie Siekkinen.

 The teams played pretty much like yesterday. The goalies were substituted,
 the Swedish defense pairings were a bit different and new players for the
 Finnish team were Timo Peltomaa and Kari Harila.

 Best player in the Swedish team was double goal scorer Mikael Renberg.
 He likes it when it's fast-paced hockey with a lot of body contact.
 
 Talking about on-ice adds, the rink in Helsinki had the most adds I've
 ever seen. In addition to adds in the five face-off circles, they had
 *six* additional circles with adds. And in all sorts of colors too,
 orange, red, blue, green, yellow you name it. Not that I ever found
 it hard to follow the puck but it looked kind of.. hmm.. funky.

 As a whole, a bit disappointing performance by Sweden in these two games.
 Finland and Matikainen, though, must be a lot more satisfied. Six periods
 of fast-paced good hockey by the Finns and it seems very hard to understand
 the Finns' losses earlier this fall (for example the loss against Latvia).

 Swedish coach Curt Lundmark has chosen a different approach than Finnish
 counterpart Matikainen. Curt has decided to split up every team units 
 (as they play in the domestic league) because he says they should "learn
 to think a bit". Matikainen, however, has for example a Jokerit line.
 Maybe this partly explains the Finnish dominance but still the Finnish
 players looked a lot more "hungry" than the Swedish ones.

 I think Sweden should have kept the natural Rundqvist-Loob combination
 added with Renberg as a strong and decisive first line. It feels kind
 of strange to say it, but this Team Sweden is really missing Peter Forsberg
 and Markus Naslund, two *junior* players. Peter and Markus didn't play
 due to upcoming WJHC in Gavle, Sweden.
 I realize it's early to draw conclusions but I don't have too much confidence
 for Curt Lundmark's way of running the team. I predict that Sweden will end
 up no better than a 4th place at the '93 WC. You heard it here first.

 Team Sweden will now travel to St Petersburg, Russia, where the Izvestija
 tournament starts next Wednesday. Opening game for Sweden is incidentally
 against Finland.

 Staffan
--
 ((\\  //| Staffan Axelsson            
  \\  //|| etxonss@ufsa.ericsson.se    
\\_))//-|| contact for Swedish hockey  
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey