Today at 7:00 a.m. ET, Canada and Sweden faceoff in the men's ice hockey gold medal game live from the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi as part of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The game can be live streamed for free here.
Sweden and Canada both battled through tough one-goal games in the semifinals to get to this game for the gold. Canada is looking for its second straight Olympic gold medal finish after winning the 2010 Vancouver Games and would become the first repeat Olympic champion since the Soviet Union in 1984 and '88 while Sweden will look to win its second gold medal game in eight years after winning it all in 2006.
The Canadians survived a 1-0 victory over the United States in the semifinals of the tournament off of a goal by Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn in order to propel themselves back to the gold medal game.
"I think we've been good defensively the whole time," Canada coach Mike Babcock told NHL.com. "It's hard to get real good players to be committed as our group is defensively, and yet we haven't scored. No one seems to care. It doesn't matter. You just want another opportunity."
Benn has 51 points in 58 games this season for the Stars off of 22 goals and 29 assists. Carey Price made 31 saves in the shutout of the Americans and is 26-17-5 through 48 games for the Montreal Canadiens with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.
Canada has scored 14 goals in five games thus far in the tournament while only allowing three goals-against. Still, the team isn't completely satisfied with its efforts thus far due to it not taking advantage of scoring chances.
"We've had unbelievable opportunities and still haven't finished," Babcock said per NHL.com. "We're going to finish. We just hope we don't run out of time."
Canada beat the United States in 2010 off of an overtime goal by Sidney Crosby, who leads the NHL with 78 points and 50 assists while adding 28 goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins through 58 games this season.
Sweden is the only team in the tournament to win all of its games in regulation and earned the top seed in the Games after a strong effort in group play.
Sweden is coming off of a 2-1 win over Finland in the semifinals and has overcome a rash of injuries, including a back injury to captain Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings. Sweden hasn't been as hyped up as Canada, America and host Russia have been coming into the tournament, but the team is fine with that.
"We've been told that we're kind of up there but not really with Canada, Russia and the U.S.," Detroit Red Wings forward Daniel Alfredsson said via ESPN. "We got into this tournament and we've played pretty good but not great, and everyone has looked for us to be better. We came through with a huge game [against Finland] when we needed to and that's a great feeling. We definitely deserved to win, and we're going to enjoy this for a few hours and then we have one big test left. We want to make sure we go home with the gold and make Sunday's game our best yet."
Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers has been solid between the pipes for Sweden and will look to leave Sochi with his second gold medal. He made 25 saves in Friday's semifinal win over Finland.
Lundqvist is 22-18-3 through 44 games for New York this season with a 2.44 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
The gold medal is on the line when the puck drops at the Bolshoy Ice Dome today in Sochi to close out the 2014 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey tournament.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.