to move up and down
Sweden has the opportunity to win an IIHF World Championship as the host country for the first time since the Soviet Union did it in 1986.
Sweden blanked Finland 3-0 in Saturday’s semi-final at Stockholm’s Globe Arena to advance to Sunday’s championship game.
The Soviet Union won a men’s world hockey title 27 years ago in Moscow.
“It’s about time. It’s about time,” Swedish forward Henrik Sedin said. “No pressure, just fun.” (Photo by Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Image)
Goal of the year? Here is Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s amazing moment during Sweden vs. England
Zlatan Ibrahimovic capped a four-goal performance with a stunning overhead kick from 35 yards as Sweden beat England 4-2 in a friendly Wednesday to open its new national stadium.
The Sweden captain opened the scoring on a counterattack in the 20th minute, but Danny Welbeck and Steven Caulker replied for England before the break.
Two Swedish researchers compiling an encyclopedia of hockey history have made a few significant new discoveries, including what they’re calling the earliest known image of a hockey player — a well-dressed skater with a curved stick and flat-edged puck striding along England’s ice-covered Thames River in December 1796.
Sport historians Carl Giden and Patrick Houda have also unearthed an extremely rare book published in 1776 that includes the first detailed description of field hockey — ancestor of dozens of derivative sports, from NHL hockey to ringette to the underwater game of “octopush” — as well as another vintage illustration of a group of boys at play that’s considered the earliest of its kind.
The engraving of the Thames River skater came to the researchers’ attention after a U.S. collector purchased it from an antique shop in Maine. Though the image was printed in 1797, Giden and Houda believe the scene depicted took place in December 1796, when a spell of unusually cold weather swept across Britain and froze rivers and ponds throughout Greater London.
The picture’s background even contained a clue — a distinctive obelisk situated on the riverbank behind the skater — that allowed the Swedes to pinpoint the location of the scene as a bend of the Thames near the Kew Observatory west of downtown London.
A second boy seen lacing up his skates is believed to be sitting on the edge of Islesworth Ait, a large, teardrop-shaped island in the middle of the river.
Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin on Saturday became the 16th player to have his jersey number honoured by the franchise.
During the first intermission of Toronto’s 5-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the lanky Swede spoke at length to the media and took one last trip down memory lane in a week full of trips down memory lane.
Read some of that exchange, and check out more pictures from the banner-raising ceremony here.
Related: Leafs spoil Mats Sundin night with ugly loss to Canadiens
Former Leafs great Mats Sundin remembered as a consummate leader
How Swede it is
Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad, who scored the winning goal in overtime, holds a sign while celebrating after defeating Russia in the gold medal game. Photo: REUTERS/Todd Korol
The fatal blow
George Johnson: Time after time it beat down on the Russian shore, this relentless blue-tinted yellow wave. In the end, justice, as that wave finally pulled Russian resistance underneath the surface, Ottawa Senators prospect Mika Zibanejad powering to the net and knifing an unstoppable backhander past heroic netminder Andrei Makarov 10:09 into overtime. Photo: Todd Korol/Reuters
Big air
Norway’s Roger Kleivdal during the Snowboard Big Air FIS World Cup 2012 competition in Stockholm Stadium on November 19, 2011.
Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Leafs to honour Sundin
Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin was on hand for the Leafs’ 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, when the Leafs announced they would raise his No. 13 to the Air Canada Centre rafters in a pre-game ceremony on Feb. 11. Photo: Mark Blinch/Reuters
