Swedes set standard

TURIN -- They live in peaceful coexistence, the Finns and the Swedes, even if there is enough emotional and historical baggage between the Scandinavian neighbors to keep the Hatfieldssons and the McCoyninnens fighting over stone walls, cross-country trails, and herds of reindeer for millennia to come.

When the sides play hockey, as they did here yesterday in the Olympic gold medal championship, it is clearly a matter of deep national pride, a bona fide grudge match that plays out with some slick, dastardly stickwork and more than a few targeted elbow jabs in the corners.

Shortly after 4 p.m. inside Palasport Olimpico, thanks to a Nicklas Lidstrom long-range slapper early in the third period, it was the Swedes who left as the reigning kings of ice hockey with a 3-2 win over the previously undefeated Finns.

''No excuses," said a tight-lipped Saku Koivu, the Finnish captain. ''They were the winners, and we aren't -- right now."

But overall the difference was nearly as invisible as the border between the countries, as minimal as it should be in a gold medal match. The Swedes won by the single goal, and owned one more shot (28 to 27) for the 60 minutes. It was not classic back-and-forth action, in part because both sides were so adept at team-wide five-man defense and near-perfect checking. They didn't so much trade rushes and chances as play out plotted, textbook defensive patterns, each side only occasionally allowing the other clear looks at the net.

Lidstrom's winner, only 10 seconds into the final period, came on a one-time slapper from just over the blue line, left wing, that he nailed to the top left corner on Finnish netminder Antero Niittymaki, who owned five shutouts in the Finns' previous seven victories. Peter Forsberg first broke the zone on the left side, left a drop pass for team captain Mats Sundin -- who had snapped Koivu's stick on the faceoff, forcing the Canadiens captain to retreat to the bench for some new wood -- and in a flash the trailing Lidstrom hammered home the clincher off Sundin's sweet backhand drop feed.

''One of the better shots of my career," said a smiling Lidstrom, the Detroit Red Wing mainstay who could win his fourth Norris Trophy in the NHL this season. ''That's for sure."

The Finns, who rubbed out the Americans in the quarterfinals, got on the board first, defenseman Kimmo Timonen cranking in a long-range slapper of his own off a short Teemu Selanne feed at 14:45 of the first. The strike came only 30 seconds after Sweden's Jorgen Jonsson was sent to penalty box for a hook. With the likes of Koivu and Jere Lehtinen flashing sticks in front, setting screens, Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist had little chance at making the stop.

The lead lasted only 4:42 into the second, when the Swedes answered the Finnish power-play strike with one of their own. Henrik Zetterberg zipped out from behind the net at the right post and flipped a doorstep wrister by a somewhat startled Niittymaki for the equalizer. The Swedes didn't play in arrears the rest of the day.

''We've had some of the best players in the world for a while, but we haven't delivered," noted the matter-of-fact Sundin, whose long tenure in Toronto as Leafs captain has never resulted in the ultimate NHL prize. ''I got the sense right away this time that we were prepared to show the world the kind of hockey we're capable of playing."

The Swedes used another power play in the second period to take their first lead of the day at 13:24. Niklas Kronwall zipped toward the top inner edge of the right circle and nailed a 25-foot wrister for the 2-1 lead. Kronwall should have been erased, the shot never made, but ex-Bruin Antti Laaksonen opted for a stick check instead of a body check. Kronwall kept possession, took a stride or two closer to the net, and turned the slightest of defensive lapses into one huge goal.

Nonetheless, the Finns got it back, and quickly, when Ville Peltonen lifted in a short backhander from the right side after collecting a backhand relay from Jussi Jokinen from the opposite side. It was typical of the crafty work both sides flashed all day, and the 2-2 deadlock held up for the remainder of the period.

Over the course of the third period, following the Lidstrom strike, the Finns managed 10 more shots on Lundqvist, but could never pot the equalizer. The best opportunity came at 14:37 when Niklas Hagman, son of former Bruin Matti Hagman, shook loose of Niclas Havelid at the blue line and uncorked a steaming slapper from mid-slot.

Faced with doom at the hands of their neighbors, the Finns first pulled Niittymaki with 1:30 remaining on the clock. Other than a brief stretch when they were forced to put their goalie back in net for a faceoff, the Finns played with the advantage to the end. But their best bid, an Olli Jokinen short ranger with about 25 seconds to go, failed to connect.

''About as close to a heart attack as I've ever been in my life," said Bruins winger P.J. Axelsson, on the ice for the Swedes when Jokinen launched his shot.

With three seconds left, Zetterberg made a key block of a Selanne pass high in the zone, knocking it toward mid-ice, and the Swedes were Olympic champs for the first time since '94.

When it was over, Axelsson, a gold medal about to be draped around his neck, hunkered over to regain his wind. The durable, effective winger never left the ice for the final 90 seconds of play.

''Nothing wrong, I was just really, really tired," explained Axelsson. ''I think it was a pretty nice game, and we had some luck on our side, too."

Once he regained his wind, and his ever-present grin, Axelsson fired both of his gloves into the stands, delivering prized souvenirs to two in the crowd of 8,274. When it came time to collect the gold, he straggled to the end of the line, the last of the Swedish skating brothers to collect his prize.

''You know, I wasn't really thinking that much," said Axelsson, asked how he felt standing there, awaiting IOC president Jacques Rogge to hand over the gold. ''It was a long time . . . and it was just sort of an empty feeling, I guess. I can't believe it."

Axelsson has never won the Stanley Cup. Of the two prizes, he said, the Olympic gold would mean more back home in Sweden, because Swedish hockey fans, by and large, put more value in the Olympics and World Championship than they do in the workaday NHL prize.

''It is more popular back home," he said. ''But to win a Stanley Cup, you are together a whole year. This is two weeks, so it's different. To win the Stanley Cup is still the ultimate goal."

For two weeks of moonlighting, Axelsson and his fellow Swedes, most of whom play in the NHL, got their gold. Now they head back over the Atlantic, the kings of Olympus, prepared again to punch the clock at the day job.