Comment Three crowns dropped one at a time – Lions underlined their position as a tournament favorite

Men the puck medal sparkles more and more brightly on the horizon of Beijing’s polluted but at times surprisingly bright sky during the Games.

The rise of the lions from 0-3 to a 4-3 overtime win underscored the team’s position as a favorite in the Olympic tournament.

Finland twisted itself from the bridge to victory with a neckline. Mentally, it was such a trick that at least one thing from the Lion would not end in an Olympic tournament: faith in victory.

Read more: “Two guys, just fighting in a league game, can they be put to sit next to each other?” – The lion team sometimes encounters strange problems, and they are always solved by this man

Do you remember times when Swedish ball culture did not include the loss of leadership?

In the case of Tre Kronor, that time was sometime before Johan Garpenlövin head coach.

Jukka Jalosen The Lions have risen past the Garpenlöv team twice in value matches. In the golden spring of the World Championships in 2019, Garpenlöv’s stellar NHL arsenal led the Lions twice, first with two goals and later for a long time with more goals, but Jalonen’s Euro Lions marched from the semi-finals onwards.

In Beijing, Jalonen’s group made it even better.

Two batches In the time of the Lions game, few things worked. Already in the opening round, the stern was cramped with the strong fighting challenge posed by Sweden. Finland did not create any goals.

In the second in installments betrayed the Lions Emotional Control. Markus Granlundin the big cool was not intentional, of course, but rightly condemned with the current guidelines.

Not all of the judgments in the match necessarily went to the button, but the Finns themselves begged for more blood from their noses in a futile after-game. Frowning in the arena Mikko Lehtonen the swear word released and the powerful hitting of the racket to the edge spoke of the essential emotional control of the Lions.

Of course, the ice judgments played a part, but also because Sweden took the Finns in the fighting. Both played hard, but only one was caught playing.

Lions’ underpowering also betrayed. Sweden baked all three of their goals with superiority. Assistant coach in the opening finish Mikko Mannerin The “cross-feed closed” cry did not end until the feed had passed through the Finnish Quartet and the shot towards the net had already left.

There where Sweden used to be able to freeze the game with three goals in the old days, now it gave Lions a chance. No change was needed.

The Finns put themselves in the league, focused on the essentials, fought upright and were chased wildly. Three crowns fell from the board one at a time. And when Finland got the gear and the ecstasy, the letter brought the crown to the Lion.

Thus, Finland won the Swedish Olympic Hockey for the first time since 1998. It took 24 years, but there had been only four Olympic encounters between Nagano in the semi-finals and Sunday.

Perhaps the teams will still face in Beijing.

Tre Kronor and Garpenlöv found themselves in a position where they had to find new drugs to overthrow Finland. It can be an impossible place when the gameplay and skill advantage, and now also the mental neck loop, are with the Lions.

When Finland and Sweden put the physical size of the Beijing NHL in the small Olympic bowl, and once again the match could not be avoided. What would this look like if the best hockey players in both countries weighed in front of their eyes?

Barkov, Rantanen, Clearing, Heiskanen and partners Landeskog, Nylander, Zibanejad, Hedman and compass.

The skill of the best individuals combined with the spirit and intensity of the traditional Finland-Sweden struggle. What a show it would have been!

The longing finally faded as the game progressed. Neighboring Olympic crews staged a branch off. In the block situation, the draw for the actual playing time was suitable for both, but there was no information about the match in the trough.

Subscribe to the Olympics free newsletter hs.fi/newsletters

Read all the Olympic stuff at hs.fi/olympics