Sweden takes home the gold in inline hockey

Just thought I would do a follow-up on my post about the Inline Hockey World Championship as the final took place today.

The final was played between Sweden and Slovakia. Sweden had advanced to final by beating Finland in the quarterfinal (9-3) and USA in the semi (12-8), while Slovakia got there by wins against Czech Republic (6-5 in OT) and Germany (3-2 in OT).

Sweden, which was the defending Champion and had already beaten Slovakia 5-0 earlier in the tournament, was obviously the favorite. They stood up to the pressure and took home the gold after a comfortable 7-3 win. Yay!

Sweden's top scorer was Detroit prospect Dick Axelsson, who had 9 goals and 7 assists in 6 games. He ended up second in points in the tournament behind college hockey player Pat Lee, who had 8 goals and 10 assists in 6 games. Lee couldn't help his USA to a medal though as they lost to Germany, 7-8, in the bronze game.

Directorate Awards:

Best Goalkeeper - Sasu Hovi (FIN)
Best Defenseman - Lee Sweatt (USA)
Best Forward - Linus Klasen (SWE)
MVP - Dick Axelsson (SWE)

Other players from the tournament you might have heard of:

Ales Hemsky, Czech Republic
Karel Rachunek, Czech Republic
Petr Tenkrat, Czech Republic
Lubomir Visnovsky, Slovakia

For full stats from the tournament, check here. Oh and congrats to the Swedish players!

What do Swedish hockey players do in the summer?

They play inline hockey! OK, far from all of them. Golf and harness racing seem to be the most common interest.

The Inline Hockey World Championship is played during the summers though and it's always fun to see which players are on the Swedish national team. Reason is because there are usually a couple of names that I as a hockey fan recognize.

Last year, 2-time Swedish Champion Per Ledin, who I mentioned before has signed with the Colorado Avalanche, was on the squad. That team ended up going all the way and won the gold.

This year you will find for example Detroit prospect Dick Axelsson, puck wizard and fellow SEL player Linus Klasen and Fredrik Eriksson, who scored the Swedish Championship winning goal in 2006.

The tournament starts on June 21. You find the official site here and Sweden's squad can be found here (PDF-file).
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