I still don’t know what to think or say, and it’s been almost an hour since the miracle ended.
The miracle in question is the just finished quarterfinal in the world championships of ice-hockey in Finland, between Finland and Sweden. Sweden won the game 6-5, after being down 1-5 6:44 into the second period.
What a game…
Sweden came out blazing and, fairly I think, took the lead by a backhand goal from Mats Sundin. Then something happened – Finland started playing hockey (with some help by the US referee I think, and some bad Swedish play and decisions). Peter Forsberg were forced to take a penalty (this was a fair penalty) to stop Saku Koivu from scoring after a Swedish defenceman got lost in center-ice. Finland shows up a very efficient power-play, ending up with Teemu Selänne scoring the equalizer.
Next time Finland got the opportunity with one man more on the ice, he was there again – Teemu Selänne, 1-2. Then at the end of the period (18:35) Tomi Kallio scored from an impossible angle, almost parallell to the goalline in the corner, via the Swedish goalie, Tommy Salo, 1-3.
In the first minutes of the second period, there was almost only one team on the ice – Finland. They dominated the game totally at this point, scoring both 1-4 and 1-5 (Selänne once again @ 6:44 in the second period). I was on my way to turn the TV off and go to bed, as was probably many, many other Swedes at that point, but that’s just when things got started…
The Swedish coach, Hardy Nilsson, pulled Tommy Salo out of the goal, and replaced him with Mikael Tellqvist, trying desperately to break the bad trend.
Just 1:20 later (8:04), Peter Nordström scored, what at the time at least, looked like just a consolation goal. But less than a minute and a half later Peter Forsberg scored another for Sweden, making it 3 – 5. And the period wasn’t over yet. At 12:45 in the second, Teemu Selänne comes totally free with the Swedish replacement goalie and everyone (including me) thought that he’d close the game at that point. But not Mikael Tellqvist, he made a very nice save.
With less than 3 minutes to go of the second period, Jonas Höglund scored making it 4 – 5, going into the third period.
Coming in to the third period, Finland has changed goalkeeper as well, Jani Hurme out and Pasi Nurminen in. Nothing much exiting happens for more or less the first half of the period, but then…
Peter Forsberg, who else? The best hockeyplayer in the world at the moment. The way he scored the equalizing goal to 5 – 5 was something that you hardly see in youth games these days, even less in this standard of hockey. He picks up the puck behind the Swedish goal, speeds up through center ice, cuts into the Finnish zone on the left side, goes all the way behind the Finnish goal, turns up into the ice and shoots from no angle. The puck bounces off of either a Finnish defender, or the goalie into the net. And all of a sudden, the game is tied.
After this the Finnish team was demolished, Per-Johan AxelssonPer-Johan Axelsson scored the winning goal during a power-play at 15:06 in the last period. The Finnish team pulled the goalie with a minute and a half left, and tried to equalize, but not really coming close at any point. Sweden almost scored in the empty net twice, but the Finnish players managed to stop it both time.
Now it’s semi-final against the defending champions, Slovakia, on Friday evening. Revenge-time, Slovakia beat Sweden in the semi’s last year and proceeded to win the championship.
Go Sweden Go!!