Team Sweden Has Won Eight World Championship Gold Medals
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TEAM SWEDEN HAS WON EIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD MEDALS Tre Kronor has won seven World Championship Gold Medals during the years, 1953, 1957, 1962, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1998 and 2006. This is what happened when we won: 1953 in Zürich, Switzerland This became a tournament where important nations were missing. USA was forbidden to come. They were banned because of fighting in a game in Basel the year before. Canada decided to show sympathy for USA and didn’t show up either. It became even less teams in the tournament when Czechoslovakia suddenly went home. The reason was that their president Gottwaldow died and national mourning was declared. The Czechoslovakian government forbid sport competitions and therefore Team Czechoslovakia had nothing else to do than return home during the tournament. It was the first time Team Sweden played with three lines instead of two. The result was successful. Team Sweden won the Gold Medal before West Germany (Silver Medal) and Switzerland (Bronze Medal). So in the end all three participating teams got one medal each. Göte Blomqvist, from Södertälje SK, was best scorer in Team Sweden with seven goals. Team Sweden’s results: Czechoslovakia (before they went home) 5-3, Switzerland 9-2 and 9-1, West Germany 8-6 and 12-2. 1957 in Moscow, Soviet Union Nobody expected success from the young team with seven World Championship rookies that went to Moscow. Even important representatives from media decided to stay at home. But team Sweden played well and the results went our way. Before the last game against the Soviet Union a tied game would be enough to win the whole tournament. About 50 000 Russians who believed in their team became very surprised when Team Sweden took the lead with 2-0 in the first period. The Russians came back in the second period and turned the game to a lead with 4-2. Sweden tied the game to 4-4 and the Russians showed strong offensive the last ten minutes of the game trying to score again. The Swedish goalkeeper Thord Flodqvist stopped one shot with his cheek and defenceman Vilgot Larsson stopped one shot with his forehead. After such heroic achievements the Gold Medal was our! Ronald Pettersson, from Södertälje SK, was the best scorer in Team Sweden with seven goals. Team Sweden’s results: East Germany 11-1, Poland 8-3, Czechoslovakia 2-0, Austria 10- 0, Japan 18-0, Finland 9-3 and The Soviet Union 4-4. www.swehockey.se www.stats.swehockey.se 1962 in Colorado Springs, USA The third World Championship Gold Medal was unexpectedly won in USA before Canada (Silver Medal) and USA (Bronze Medal). Team Sweden had so far never won over a Canadian team but now Sweden defeated both Canada and the USA. The game against Canada is a classical game in Swedish ice hockey history. Sweden had the lead wit 4-3 when Canada in the end of the game took a chance with an extra attacker and left their goal empty. Then Nils Nilsson made a long shot against the Canadian goal, 5-3! Another big hero in the Swedish team was goalkeeper Lennart Häggroth. He was from the beginning reserve goalkeeper but played so solid in the pre World Championship games that he became the first goalkeeper in the team. Nils Nilsson, from Forshaga IF, was best scorer in the whole tournament with 12 goals. He was best in points 18 (12 goals and 6 assists) among all in the tournament. He was also selected Best Center in the World Championship All Star Team. Team Sweden’s results: Switzerland 17-2, USA 2-1, Finland 12-2, Canada 5-3, Great Britain 17-0, Norway 10-2, Germany 4-0. 1987 in Vienna, Austria Sweden won the fourth Gold Medal before The Soviet Union (Silver Medal) and Czechoslovakia (bronze Medal). It happened a lot in the first round of the tournament. There were games with players playing against the rules, winning games who later were announced as losing games, appeals against game decisions and cases even brought to Austrian court. After all this Sweden finally reached play off. It was a tough beginning of the play off. Team Czechoslovakia had the lead with 2-0 and 3-1 before we tied the game 3-3. Håkan Loob made all three goals for Team Sweden. In the next game The Soviet Union had the lead with 1-0 and 2-1 before we tied the game. The game tying goal, 2-2, is one of the most beautiful goals made in Swedish ice hockey history. All five players were involved in the goal. Anders Eldebrink fell but managed to pass the puck over to Bengt-Åke Gustafsson who took it into offensive zone. He made sure he got Russian players approaching him and then he passed the puck back to defenceman Tommy Albelin. Albelin saw Håkan Loob at the left of the Russian goal and passed the puck. Håkan Loob fooled the Russian defencemen by turning the wrong way and with his back against the goal he backhanded the puck to Tomas Sandström who stood right in front of the goal and scored in the almost empty goal only 81 seconds before the game ended. − Even my mom could have scored from that position, Tomas Sandström happily told media after the game. In Sweden’s last game in the tournament, Canada was defeated with 9-0, the biggest win ever against Canada. Best Scorer in Sweden was Håkan Loob (from Calgary Flames) who made five goals. Sweden’s results: West Germany 3-0, USA 6-2, Czechoslovakia 2-3, Switzerland 12-1, Canada 4-3, Finland 1-7, Soviet Union 2-4, Czechoslovakia 3-3, Soviet Union 2-2, Canada 9- 0. www.swehockey.se www.stats.swehockey.se 1991 in Turku, Finland In a hard competition Sweden wins it’s fifth World Championship Gold Medal. But even with many strong opponents Team Sweden is able to play the whole tournament without losing any game. We win, Canada get the Silver Medal and the Soviet Union get the Bronze Medal. Mats Sundin (from Quebec Nordiques) makes most points and goals (12 points, 7 goals and 5 assists) among all players in the tournament. He also makes the game winning goal in the final game when he shoots 2-1 against The Soviet Union. That goal is a beautiful goal always to be remembered for Swedish hockey fans. Sundin pick the puck in the Swedish zone, skates over the ice and in offensive zone where he meets the world star defenceman Vjatjeslav Fetisov. Sundin is pretending a shot and Fetisov goes the wrong way. Sundin passes him and shoots a hard ice shot between the pads of Andrei Trefilov. Team Sweden’s results: Germany 8-1, Finland 4-4, USA 4-4, Switzerland 4-3, Czechoslovakia 2-1, Canada 3-3, Soviet Union 5-5, Canada 3-3, USA 8-4, Soviet Union 2-1. 1992 in Prague, Czechoslovakia Sweden wins the sixth World Championship Gold Medal before Finland (Silver Medal) and Czechoslovakia (Bronze Medal). Sweden came to the tournament with a quite inexperienced team. Fifteen players in the team were World Championship rookies. It was tough in the first round. We only won one game and reached play off as the fourth and last team to play off from our group. We had only one point more than Italy… In the quarter final we met the strong Russian team. But when it was needed Sweden made the best game in the tournament and defeated Russia with 2-0. Mats Sundin’s 2-0 is a goal many players just can dream about. He fools all five Russian players before he backhands the puck in the net. The Russians wins the shooting statistic but the Swedish star goalie, Tommy Söderström made a shoot out. He is then the first Swedish goalkeeper ever to make a shoot out against the Russians in a World Championship game. Best players in the Swedish team are Tommy Söderström, Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin and Arto Blomsten. Arto Blomsten (from Djurgårdens IF) and Peter Forsberg (from MoDo Hockey) are best scorers in Team Sweden with four goals each. Sweden’s results: Poland 7-0, Italy 0-0, Germany 2-5, Finland 1-3, USA 4-4, Russia 2-0, Switzerland 4-1, Finland 5-2. www.swehockey.se www.stats.swehockey.se 1998 in Zürich, Switzerland Sweden wins its seventh World Championship Gold Medal before Finland (Silver Medal) and Czechoslovakia (Bronze Medal). Sweden played ten games and didn’t loose any game or period. Nine wins and one tied was the result during the tournament. The success is the result of a strong team effort. The brightest stars in the Swedish team are goalkeeper Tommy Salo (from New York Islanders) and forwards Mats Sundin (Toronto Maple Leafs), Peter Forsberg (Colorado Avalanche) and Mikael Renberg (Tampa Bay Lightning). The World Championship final games were played against Finland with the results 1-0 and 0-0. Defenceman and World Championship rookie Johan Tornberg (from Västerås IK) was the happy and proud player who shot the Gold Medal winning goal. Mats Sundin made most points (12 points, five goals, seven assists) among all World Championship players. Peter Forsberg made most goals, six, in Team Sweden. There is a lot from Sweden when we take a look at the statistic information: • Mats Sundin made most points in the World Championship • Peter Forsberg shared making most goals in the World Championship • Swedish players are at the first six places in plus minus rating (Mats Sundin, Mattias Öhlund, Niclas Hävelid, Johan Tornberg, Peter Forsberg and Niklas Sundström) • Goalkeeper Tommy Salo has the best goal against average among goalkeepers in the World Championship • Team Sweden had the best defending percentage in playing box play • Peter Forsberg was selected best forward in the World Championship by IIHF • Tommy Salo, Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin was selected to World Championship All Star Team I by media • Mattias Öhlund was selected to World Championship All Star Team II by media Sweden’s results: France 6-1, Switzerland 4-2, USA 6-1, Finland 1-0, Belarus 2-1, Canada 7-1, Switzerland 4-1, Switzerland 7-2, Finland 1-0, Finland 0-0.