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Sweden's 'torpedo' sinks Canada, 5-2
By Tim Buckley
Deseret News Olympic specialist
WEST VALLEY CITY — Dubbed by some "the torpedo," Swedish coach Hardy Nilsson calls his team's style something else.
Whatever, Canada was sunk by Sweden's play in a 5-2 men's Olympic hockey medal-round win.
"You people talk about 'the torpedo' . . . but it's not my system," said Nilsson, whose forwards bullet to the blue line and defensemen aren't afraid to jump into the play. "My system is what I call 'big-ice hockey.' We want to keep the puck . . . and create a lot of ice to play on."
Pretty effective, eh?
"We got hammered," said Canada's coach, Pat Quinn.
He didn't mean drunk.
"It seemed like we were standing still out there," Canadian captain Mario Lemieux said.
Sweden's Silly Putty sort of game was most-effective on the E Center's large, no-red line international ice.
"They made it look easy," Canada's Rob Blake said. "They stretched it out and created 2-on-1 breaks."
"They kept throwing the long pass," fellow defenseman Eric Brewer added, "and we cannot allow (that)."
Yet they did.
The Canadians did strike first, as Blake's low blast beat 33-save Swede goalie Tommy Salo. But Sweden returned fire with a tying five-hole goal past Curtis Joseph from Mats Sundin, then second-period goals from Niklas Sundstrom, Sundin, Kenny Jonsson and Ulf Dahlen.
"We confused their forwards. . . . I think they were a little surprised with how we played the system," Jonsson said.
Fortunately for Canada, the final round's first three games count only for seeding purposes before Wednesday's quarterfinal round begins. That has Quinn's club hopeful it will resurface.
"It's just one game, you know?" Canada's Theo Fleury said. "The most important game is next Wednesday."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com
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February 16, 2002
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