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ICE HOCKEY

Franzén injury blow to Swedish Olympic hopes

Swedish ice hockey star and Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzén will be out for four months with a torn knee ligament and risks missing the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

Published: 10 October 2009 13:10 CEST
Franzén injury blow to Swedish Olympic hopes

The 29-year-old suffered the injury to his left knee on Thursday in the Red Wings’ 3-2 win over Chicago in which Franzén scored.

Franzén, who goes by the nickname ‘The Mule’, won a Stanley Cup with Detroit in 2008 and a gold medal with Sweden’s Tre Kronor at the 2006 World Championships.

One of the top Swedish goal-scorers in the NHL last season, he notched 34 goals in 71 games and had all but booked his place in the national squad for next year’s Olympics in Vancouver.

Sweden play their first Olympic match on February 17.

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ICE HOCKEY

Sweden beat Swiss to win ice hockey world title in shoot-out drama

Sweden retained their world championship title with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over plucky Switzerland in Copenhagen on Sunday.

Published: 20 May 2018 23:33 CEST
Sweden beat Swiss to win ice hockey world title in shoot-out drama
Swiss players react after the defeat to Sweden. Photo: AFP

Filip Forsberg of the NHL's Nashville Predators scored the winning penalty as Sweden came back from 1-0 down in the shoot-out to win 2-1 following a 2-2 draw after overtime.

Surprise finalists Switzerland had been aiming for their first ever world title, while Sweden claimed an 11th crown.

Sweden had been the only unbeaten team through the group stage while Switzerland scraped into the quarter-finals with the weakest record.

But they stunned Group B winners Finland and then Canada to take their place in a third world championship final.

Five years ago they had lost to Sweden, who beat them 5-3 in the group stages too.

Switzerland twice took the lead, in each of the first two periods, but were pegged back by the favourites before the end of each stanza.

Minnesota Wild's Nino Niederreiter had given them a 16th minute lead but Gustav Nyquist of the Detroit Red Wings equalised a minute later.

On 23 minutes Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks put the underdogs in front again, but that was wiped out by New York Ranger Mika Zibanejad on 34 minutes.

With no scores in either the third period or overtime, the final was decided by a shoot-out where Switzerland once again took the lead.

But Oliver Ekman-Larsson cancelled out Sven Andrighetto's successful strike, allowing Forsberg to become the hero.

Christopher Kreider of the Rangers scored twice as the United States thumped Canada 4-1 to take the bronze medal.

 After Kreider opened the scoring, Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the Sharks equalised.

But goals from Nashville's Nicholas Bonino and Anders Lee of the New York Islanders put the US in charge before Kreider rounded out the win.