Sweden and Finland are playing live on Friday and the game is the semifinals for the men's Olympics hockey tournament and it will be streaming from NBC and is on the Sports Network at 7 am and the winner makes it to the gold medal game against the United States or Canada and Henrik Lundqvist comes in after a shoutout and he has experience in these situations.
Sweden comes in after a 5-0 win against Slovenia in the quarterfinals and now the team is facing off against Finland after they won over Russia to send the home team out of Sochi and now the winner of that game plays against the US or Canada. The Canadian women won the gold on Thursday and the men are looking for their second in a row since winning it in Vancouver and they face off against a very tough American team that is scoring in bunches. Sweden won over the Czech Republic, Latvia and Switzerland to get the top seed and now they have a clear shot to the gold medal game against a team they don't like in the Finland national squad.
Lundqvist has been in this position before and he is among some top goaltenders left alive in the games along with Jonathan Quick and Carey Price and all those goalies will start in the semifinals. The Canadians and the Swedes are the last two gold medal winners and Lundqvist has powered the team to all wins in the tournament and he posted his second shutout of the tournament and he is the hottest goalie coming into the semis. Despite playing without Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel Sedin and Johan Franzen, Sweden has been very good and now they have a matchup with the Fins on Friday.
Finland won over Russia in the last round, meaning the host nation has one of its most high profile teams done in Sochi, as Alex Ovechkin and company seemingly could not rebound from that tough loss to the United States. Finland has their own solid goalie in Tuukka Rask and Teemu Selanne has proven to be as essential as always and now he will try and lead his team past Lundqvist. Finland plays strong on the back end and the Russian team simply could not do anything and now they will be without a medal for the third straight Winter Olympic games and Finland advances over the host nation in one of the biggest sports.
The shootout in eight rounds was demoralizing after the team had that goal waived off and now Sweden and Finland go at it on Friday before the United States and Canada for the gold medal game.
Check here for the Sweden and Finland live coverage from NBC for the semifinals.
