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Rivalry rekindled: Sweden, Finland will fight for 2011 World Championships gold medal

swedesvsrussiansap

Surely their rivalry is more intense than the image in my mind’s eye, but whenever I think of the Swedish-Finnish feud, I think of the battle between cats and dogs. Yes, their battles are heated, yet they’re also kind of ... cute.

Whether you agree or disagree with that sentiment, each country has entered the inner circle of great hockey nations. The Finns do it with more of a “worker bee” mentality while the Swedes provide greater high-end artistry, but both sides have built up a nice tradition of success in international competition.

With that in mind, it just makes sense that they’ll face each other in the gold medal game of the 2011 World Championships tournament.

The Swedes reached the final round by beating the defending 2010 champion Czech Republic by a score of 5-2 while Finland blanked Alex Ovechkin* and the powerful Russians 3-0. Russia and the Czech Republic will duke it out for the bronze.

Patrik Berglund scored twice while Mikael Backlund, Jimmie Ericsson and Marcus Kruger provided one goal each for Sweden, with Patrik Elias scoring the two Czech goals. Viktor Fasth stopped 35 out of 37 shots for the win while Ondrej Pavelec made 43 saves in defeat.

Mikael Granlund scored what might be the goal of the year with his lacrosse-style scoop while Jani Lajunen and Jarkko Immonen also connected for Finland. Petri Vehanen earned a 30-save shutout while Konstantin Barulin went 26 for 29 in the loss.

We’ll keep you up to date as the hockey world’s other big tournament comes to a close.

* - It doesn’t look like Ovechkin did any extra damage to an injured knee that made me think he should sit out the tournament, but he went without a point in his four games. So, quite literally, his presence was rather pointless.