Olympic Ice Hockey

Two games. Two border rivalries. Four countries all gunning for gold.

And perhaps fittingly, the 2006 gold-medal winners, Sweden, are now set to face the 2010 gold-medal winners, Canada, as each nation will gun to become the first team to win two gold medals since the NHL began allowing its players to participate in the Olympics in 1998.

Both Finland and the United States gave Sweden and Canada all they could handle in the men's hockey semifinals on Friday, respectively. But it wasn't to be for either nation, setting up a battle of recent gold-medal winners in the final. 

Let's look at the remaining schedule and recap Friday's semifinal games.

Remaining Schedule 

Sweden beats Finland, 2-1

In the first battle of the border nations, Sweden edged out Finland, 2-1, behind goals from Loui Eriksson and Erik Karlsson, and Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped 25 of 26 shots, had another stout performance.

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Finland already came into this match dealing with its fair share of injuries (Mikko Koivu, Valtteri Filppula, Saku Koivu and Aleksander Barkov were unable to participate for the Finns), but it received another blow before the game when it was announced that its starting goalie, Tuukka Rask, would miss the game due to illness.

While Kari Lehtonen generally played well, stopping 23 of 25 shots, Karlsson's goal—a slap shot from center ice just below the blue line—was a stop the Finnish keeper should have made.

But Sweden was excellent and did their homework, studying how the Finns beat the Russians and building their game plan accordingly, as Daniel Alfredsson told Chris Stevenson of the Toronto Sun:

We played close attention to the Russian-Finland game. I thought Finland played outstanding and got Russia to where they wanted. We have one big goal today and that was not to get caught in the neutral zone flat-footed and turning pucks over.

I think we were able to do that by coming together with speed and getting the puck in deep. We got a lot of good forechecking going early and put them on their heels. It gave us confidence that we had throughout the game.

The Swedes played more physical than they have in past games and did well to bottle up the Finns throughout. Now, they will be looking to earn their second gold medal in the past eight years.

Canada beats the United States, 1-0

A day after the Canadian women stole a gold medal from the United States, the Canadian men knocked the American men out of contention for a gold medal, beating them 1-0. Jamie Benn scored the game's lone goal, while Carey Price stopped all 31 shots he faced for Canada, who moved to 4-0 in the tournament.

Price spoiled a brilliant effort from Jonathan Quick, who stopped 37 of 38 shots and never had a chance to save Benn's deflected goal. Of course, he deflected the credit after the game, via the official Twitter account of the Canadian Olympic Team:

The stakes couldn't have been higher for this game. There wasn't just a gold medal or bragging rights between rival nations on the line, as NBC Sports tweeted:

In all seriousness, it's been a rough two days for American hockey, as they were beaten by their rivals in the women's and men's competitions. You can bet United States' hockey players will develop a slight tick any time "O Canada" is played for the next four years.

What's Next?

The United States and Finland will lock horns in an intriguing bronze-medal showdown. The Americans will likely be the slight favorites, as they bring the tournament's top offense into the contest, though Finland obviously thrives on playing the role of the underdog.

In the gold-medal contest, the Canadians bring the top defense (they've allowed just three goals over the duration of the tournament) and the top player (Sidney Crosby), while the Swedes have consistently gotten better throughout this tournament and have a goalie in Lundqvist who's more than capable of stealing a win.

Hold onto your seats, folks—the medal round is going to be wild.

Sweden directed acute pressure toward Finland's sturdy and disciplined defense without anything to show for it until two sparkling second-period goals set its course in this battle of the Baltic Sea at the Sochi Olympics.

Now, one-half of the gold-medal game has been slotted, with Sweden waiting for the winner of the United States versus Canada after handling Finland 2-1 in the first semifinal game.

The Swedes, dressed in their home golds with the blue triple crowns arrayed on the front of their sweaters, scored once at 9:21 of period No. 2 off a precision tic-tac-toe triangle pass that ended with Loui Eriksson sniping home a goal to tie the score at 1-1.

Just less than five minutes later, Erik Karlsson blasted an overpowering slap shot through what appeared to be a sealed gap between Finnish goalie Keri Lehtonen's right arm and hip to give Sweden the 2-1 margin. The ice in front of Lehtonen had been clear of skaters and he saw Karlsson's shot coming all the way, but the force of the blast was too much for him to contain.

Lehtonen was told he would be playing just several hours before the faceoff when Finland's superlative goalie Tuukka Rask came down with an undisclosed illness. It was a sharp blow to the Finns' chances, as Rask had been arguably the best goalie of the tournament and the biggest reason—along with Teemu Selanne—that Finland had come so far.

"It was selectively productive offense, just enough to get the job done, typical of these international tournaments," said Mike Milbury in NBC's postgame broadcast.

Finland's only goal at 13:43 of the second period had essentially been a fluke.

A Swedish defenseman had pinched down on a Finnish player in the neutral zone and made contact as the puck zipped by on a pass that went end to end and should have been icing. Because of the contact, the linesman negated the icing call, and Olli Jokinen skated hard for the Fins and collected the puck off the end boards.

Jokinen swept around to the short side of the net and at an exceptionally nasty angle, he fired the puck at Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The puck got caught up in Lundqvist's pads and slid beneath him across the goal line. The referee called up to the booth to make sure a whistle had not blown before the shot and determined it hadn't before awarding Finland the goal to make it 1-0.

Finland, wearing their dark blue road jerseys with the boxing lion patch sewn to the front, had needed power plays all day to get its momentum going, and did a good job of forcing them. The smaller of the Baltic nations forced five power plays, at least one in each period, but the decisive Swedish penalty kill kept Finland from converting even one into a goal.

The final shot count was 26-25 in favor of Finland, but the stat does not show you how much better and effective Sweden's shots on goal had been.

"Sweden does a lot of really good things, including killing penalties," said NBC Analyst Jeremy Roenick following the game. "They are so together; the chemistry is so good. Sweden was able to kill them off, and that was the key."

The Swedish team put a barrage on Finland from the opening faceoff to the final horn. The Swedes were relentless, forcing a parade of faceoffs in the Finnish zone and then dominating them. They came out especially fast and focused at the outset of each period, dominating the puck and keeping it in the Finnish zone for long stretches.

After scoring their second goal, the Swedes quickly tipped another shot that dinged off the Finnish crossbar before Daniel Sedin fired a short-side wrist shot that pinged off the outside of the post before sailing wide. 

Finland tried to fall back and spread across the big international ice sheet after scoring its first goal. The goal camera showed four Finns at times centering up in the neutral zone and at the blue line to try and swarm the Swedes and force them wide before shooting the puck in and chasing it.

Once Sweden got the lead, Finland was forced into an offensive mindset, and Lundqvist, as usual, was very difficult to beat. Selanne made massive efforts for his country behind the Swedish net, cycling the puck himself and feeding it out front for opportunities.

Finland generated two more potent scoring chances later in the game, but Lundqvist denied one with a deft blocker deflection and the second with a cat-quick pad save.

"We were one step behind the whole game," Selanne told NBC Sport's Pro Hockey Talk. "Maybe the Russia game took so much energy from us." 

Sweden returns to the gold-medal game for the first time since the 2006 Torino Games. In their history, the Swedes have won two golds (1994 and 2006), two silvers (1928 and 1964) and four bronzes (1952, 1980, 1984 and 1988).

Olympic gold will have to wait another four years for Finland, one of the world's great hockey powers, and the great Selanne will finish his sixth and final Games without ever having the ultimate prize hung around his neck. The Fins have won two silvers (1988 and 2006) and three bronzes (1994, 1998 and 2010).   

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Jamie Benn scored in the second period, and that was all the offense Team Canada needed, as the defending Olympic champions defeated Team USA 1-0 on Friday in the semifinals of the men's ice hockey tournament in Sochi.

Canadian goaltender Carey Price was perfect, making 31 saves to set up a showdown with Sweden on Sunday for the gold medal.

Jonathan Quick did everything he could, turning aside 36 of 37 shots for Team USA, which will play Finland for the bronze medal on Saturday.

Both goalies earned high marks on Bleacher Report's report card, but how did the rest of the line combinations, defensive pairings and special-teams units do? Here are the final grades, with analysis:

Final analysis

Team USA

James van Riemsdyk-Joe Pavelski-Phil Kessel: They were essentially neutralized outside of one or two chances. After dominant showings early in the tournament, they were non-factors in this game.

Zach Parise-Ryan Kesler-Patrick Kane: This group was by far Team USA's best in this contest. Parise had eight shots and the line had 12. The problem was that there were few rebound chances or second chances, as Canada's defense was constantly on top of those.

Dustin Brown-David Backes-Ryan Callahan: This group was the weakest of the four forward lines and the culprits on Benn's goal. Callahan was caught out of position on the initial pass by Bouwmeester, and the rest of the group never recovered for Benn's redirection.

Max Pacioretty-Paul Stastny-T.J. Oshie/Blake Wheeler: Stastny probably came as close as anyone to scoring, tucking a shot through the legs of Price that went just wide. Pacioretty had a couple chances but never put one past Price.

Ryan Suter-Ryan McDonagh: Suter played 26 minutes, McDonagh 23 minutes, and both were fantastic. They're hardly to blame for this loss.

Cam Fowler-Kevin Shattenkirk: Fowler had moments that made you cringe, but they escaped any dangerous situations. 

Brooks Orpik-John Carlson/Justin Faulk: If there's one glaring negative for Team USA, it was Orpik. He was constantly overmatched defensively and failed to tie up Benn on the goal. Despite his obvious ineffectiveness, he still played 16 minutes.

Jonathan Quick: Perhaps the best player on either side, Quick stopped almost everything.

Special teams: The power play was ghastly, failing to score on three opportunities. They killed two penalties.

Team Canada

Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Patrice Bergeron: Yet another game in which Crosby's line generated a host of chances but failed to finish. Even though they didn't score, the group was very effective and dominant at times.

Jamie Benn-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry: Benn scored the winner while Getzlaf and Perry appeared to be too hard to handle for any American defense pairing that wasn't Suter and McDonagh.

Patrick Marleau-Jonathan Toews-Jeff Carter: This line shut down the Pavelski line with the greatest of ease. They also had some close calls offensively, with Carter putting four shots on net.

Patrick Sharp-Matt Duchene-Rick Nash/Martin St. Louis: The loss of John Tavares did not matter, as this group was still effective. Sharp had four shots on net.

Duncan Keith-Shea Weber: There were scary moments in the first period for this pairing, but they were fine outside of that. Weber put three shots on net.

Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo: It was Bouwmeester's pass that led to Benn's goal, a nice reward for a pairing that has been solid throughout the tournament.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Drew Doughty/Dan Hamhuis: Doughty had a great chance in the first period and made a few nifty plays after that. 

Carey Price: Perfection. The defense in front of him was outstanding, but he made the few difficult saves he had to make.

Special teams: The penalty kill was huge and neutralized the American power play almost completely. 

The remarkable thing isn’t that Sweden has advanced to the gold-medal game in men’s hockey. After all, the Swedes won the tournament in 2006, the last time the Olympics took place in Europe, and the team is recognized as one of international hockey’s so-called “Big Four.” Most expected Sweden to compete for gold, and thanks to Friday’s win over Finland, it now will.

No, the remarkable thing is that the gold-medal game will be the first time in this tournament that Sweden will face a team plausibly its equal.

With all due respect to a plucky Finnish team that competed fiercely despite its decimation by injury, Sweden had an awfully easy road to the final game of the 2014 Olympic hockey tournament. It was the easiest path any team has taken since the NHL started sending players to the games back in 1998. The question now is whether it is a path that truly prepared the Swedish team for an extremely tough fight for the gold medal.

It started in the group round, where the Swedes’ toughest opponent was a Czech team undermanned owing to bizarre personnel decisions; the United States routed the same team when the two clubs met in the semifinals. After beating the Czech Republic, Sweden had to top Switzerland and Latvia, defensive-minded teams who kept the games tight but had nothing even resembling the talent of the Swedish roster.

A perfect group round—Sweden was the only team in the tournament to win all three of those games in regulation—resulted in a quarterfinal match against Slovenia that was never in doubt and then a date with Finland in the semifinals.

Finland was a stiffer test, but a series of injuries had so devastated the roster that just reaching the game against Sweden was a massive achievement for the team. The damage is perhaps best illustrated by the team’s improvised top line, featuring players far too old (43-year-old Teemu Selanne), far too young (21-year-old Mikael Granlund, just 73 games into his NHL career) and just not that good (Jarkko Immonen, who has evolved into a moderately competent KHL scorer after failing to hold down an NHL job).

This Finnish team never lacked for effort, but it certainly missed the talent of previous incarnations.

No team to ever win gold has faced such a cakewalk. Canada had to fight its way out of the qualification round in 2010. Sweden in 2006 and Canada in 2002 went a combined 4-3-1 in the group round, with both teams losing contests in which they surrendered five goals. The Czech Republic in 1998 perhaps had the most impressive run, knocking out the United States, Canada and Russia in the elimination round.

There’s something to be said for adversity at the Olympics.

For the coaches, the opportunity to see their team tested can reveal valuable weaknesses, but a defeat forces action. Canada’s 5-2 loss to Sweden at the 2002 Olympics, as one example, set off panic in the country, and the coaching staff responded with a host of changes, including dumping Pat Quinn-favoured starter Curtis Joseph for New Jersey Devils No. 1 Martin Brodeur.

Sweden, on the other hand, exited the group round confident—and lost to Belarus in the quarterfinals in what might be the greatest upset in modern Olympic hockey history.

Sweden certainly wasn’t overconfident in 2006. That edition of the team lost 5-0 to Russia and then fell to Slovakia in the group round. At the time, it was tempting to count out a Swedish roster that had come up short in games against strong teams, but Sweden went on to dominate in the quarterfinals and semifinals before beating Finland for gold.

Most strong teams would doubtless be happy to avoid the risk and take the easy road to the gold-medal game, rather than risking elimination in an encounter with another hockey power. In doing so, however, they run the risk that Sweden faces now: the risk that key undetected flaws will be exposed under pressure the team simply did not see until it played for gold.

It is possible that this Swedish team doesn't suffer from any hidden fault lines. But if it does, they will be revealed in the gold-medal game, and the coaches will have precious little time to correct for them. 

Statistics courtesy of IIHF.com.

Sweden advanced to the gold-medal game in men's hockey with a 2-1 victory over rival Finland in a hard-fought semifinal. It will play the winner of the United States and Canada in Sunday's final.

Finland opened the scoring early in the second period. The way Sweden responded immediately after the goal decided the game, as it was able to gain complete control and score twice over the next 10 minutes to get the lead, which it never relinquished.

Let's check out how the game played out in Sochi's Bolshoy Ice Dome. The scoring summary is followed by a complete recap of the first men's hockey semifinal at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Scoring Summary

Recap

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was a key factor in Finland advancing to the semifinals. Unfortunately for the Finns, they found out shortly before faceoff that he wasn't going to play due to illness. As the IIHF noted, it forced Kari Lehtonen to step in:

Sweden tried to capitalize on the late goalie switch. It pushed forward aggressively inside the first three minutes and was able to generate some offensive pressure, but Lehtonen was up to the task. Once Finland survived that initial surge, the game leveled out.

Finland had a terrific chance to get on the board first with an extended five-on-three advantage midway through the first period. The Finns couldn't convert, thanks in part to some nice stops by Swedish netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

One thing that was noticeable throughout the opening period was the rivalry. There was a lot of physical play as the intensity of an Olympic semifinal was ramped up even further. Scott Burnside of ESPN passed along comments from Sweden's Niklas Kronwall about the rivalry.

"It goes way back, obviously," Kronwall said. "The two countries have always competed in everything; in sports in particular. I think it's hard for people outside to really understand what the rivalry is all about."

Finland broke the deadlock just over six minutes into the second period, courtesy of Olli Jokinen.

The veteran forward made a nice hustle play after icing had been waved off and then beat Lundqvist from a sharp angle to give Finland the 1-0 edge. Officials reviewed the play after some initial confusion, but they eventually ruled it a good goal.

Although the tally gave Finland the advantage, it seemed to energize a Sweden side that wasn't playing up to the standard it had set throughout the tournament. The Swedes started controlling play, and the pressure paid off five minutes later as they tied the game at one.

Loui Eriksson scored the equalizer following tremendous puck movement from his teammates. Nicklas Backstrom was working down low and found a wide-open Jonathan Ericsson in the slot. When the Finnish defense overcommitted, Ericsson slid a pass to Eriksson for the easy finish.

Sweden kept pressing and was able to grab its first lead of the game with less than four minutes left in the second period.

The Swedes moved the puck around the perimeter with Jokinen in the penalty box for tripping. Alexander Steen eventually found Erik Karlsson, who unleashed a wicked slap shot from the point. Lehtonen got a piece of the shot after it made its way through a crowd, but he couldn't keep it out.

Gregg Krupa of The Detroit News summed up the Sweden comeback after Finland got on the board first:

Greg Beachum of the Associated Press gave us Teemu Salanne's reaction after their defeat:

With a one-goal lead heading into the final 20 minutes, the 2006 champions changed their approach and started playing a very defensive brand of hockey. They only generated three shots in the final period as they were more concerned about keeping the puck away from Finland and burning the clock.

It's a plan that is always second-guessed if the opponent ties the game, but Sweden did very well to slow the pace of play and keep Finland out of dangerous scoring areas. Even with a power play inside the final 10 minutes, the Finns had just eight shots in the period, and few were good scoring chances.

The result was a 2-1 win for Sweden and its third trip to the gold-medal game since 1994. It won each of the previous two.

It was a crushing loss for Finland. Pierre LeBrun of ESPN pointed out a clearly dejected 43-year-old Teemu Selanne after the final horn sounded:

Looking ahead, the Swedes will play the winner of another rivalry clash in the championship game. It will either be the United States, a team with similar two-way capabilities to Sweden, or the offensively gifted Canadians led by the game's biggest star in Sidney Crosby.

While either team will present a major challenge, Sweden can rest confidently knowing it's the only perfect team in the tournament so far. It won each of its group games without needing overtime or a shootout and has cruised past Slovenia and Finland in the knockout rounds.

That doesn't mean it will be the gold-medal favorite once the matchup is decided, but it illustrates how good the team has played despite little hype when compared to the Americans, Canadians and Russians.

Current Medal Count

Who wants Justin Bieber? Or, more importantly, who doesn't want the global pop star?

On Thursday, a billboard popped up near Chicago with a tongue-in-cheek wager in advance of Friday's anticipated Olympic men's hockey semifinal between the United States and Canada.

Meanwhile, Darren Rovell of ESPN shared the measures that one bar in San Francisco is taking to ensure a pro-American fun.

While it's all fun and games for the fans, it will be a serious affair for these two teams once the puck drops at noon ET on Friday. You can watch the game live on NBC Sports Network in the United States and CBC in Canada, while NBC Live Extra will also carry a live stream of the event.

USA vs. Canada Men's Semifinal Game

Date: Friday, Feb. 21

Time: Noon ET

TV: NBC Sports Network (United States) / CBC (Canada)

Live Stream: NBC Live Extra

Replay: Feb. 21, 5 p.m., NBC SN

A day after Canada claimed a thrilling 3-2 comeback overtime victory against Team USA in the women's hockey gold-medal game, the men will face each other in the semifinals.

It's too bad that the men's teams couldn't meet in the final, too, but the stakes are still plenty high as these two teams meet again in the Winter Games. Kevin Allen of USA Today recently chronicled the rich history of international matchups between these two countries, highlighting his five favorite all-time matches.

Friday will mark the first time that Team USA and Team Canada have played on an Olympic stage since 2010, when Sidney Crosby knocked through a golden goal against the Americans in overtime to give the Canadians the win in front of their home fans in Vancouver.

This time around, the United States enter as the hotter team after dismantling the Czech Republic, 5-2, in the quarterfinals, while Canada edged out a 2-1 victory against underdog Latvia in its match.

Following their win on Wednesday, members of the U.S. hockey team spoke to Larry Lage of the Associated Press about the upcoming matchup:

"We knew we were going to have some big games prior to this point in time, but you were looking forward to the possibility of this rematch," coach Dan Bylsma said.

After a day off, the countries that share a long border in North America and generally friendly relations will meet on Friday for the chance to become hockey champions of the Sochi Games.

"It's a great opportunity," American forward Max Pacioretty said. "They're obviously the favorite coming into the tournament, and we've opened up a lot of eyes with our play, but we have more in the tank to give and to show. We keep getting better every game, and hopefully we'll keep getting better after this one."

For the Americans, a win on Friday would vault them into the championship game, where they are assured to tack onto the nation's medal count. Through Day 13, USA is tops among all countries with 25 total medals.

While the U.S. offense has been stellar during these games, leading the Americans to an average margin of victory of 3.25 goals per game, Canada doesn't look like it's hit its top gear yet.

Following his team's close victory over Latvia in the quarterfinals, Canadian coach Mike Babcock sounded weary of the American attack he's about to face, via Paul Myerberg of USA Today:

"We plan on getting better each and every day. We're going to get better tomorrow. We play a U.S. team that seems to score real easy. We haven't scored real easy. But we'll be ready to play."

Leading the U.S. offense is forward Phil Kessel, who has five goals and three assists in the tournament so far, highlighted by his hat trick against Slovenia in the group stage. Meanwhile, Canada's top player, Sidney Crosby, is struggling to put up big point totals, as detailed by Myerberg:

No Canadian skater seems to embody the team's ability to fruitlessly punch its way deep into the zone more so than Crosby, the all-world center who brings only two points, both off assists, into the semifinal date with the USA.

It's not that Crosby hasn't been disruptive—he has been frenetic at times, feeding teammates and heading Canada's power-play attack. Like Canada's attack at large, however, Crosby has been unable to capitalize when giving prime scoring opportunities.

With the amount of firepower that the U.S. has shown so far during the Winter Games, it would be a good time for Crosby to snap out of his scoring funk. 

As always, there will be a big focus on the goalies Friday. For Team USA, it will likely be Jonathan Quick between the pipes, while Canada is expected to tab Carey Price. Nicholas Goss of NESN offered his impressions of the two goalies so far in Sochi:

Carey Price faced just 14 shots against Latvia and has seen 49 in the tournament. He has made clutch saves when needed (0.99 goals against average, .944 save percentage), but Price will be much busier against an American squad that’s averaging 30 shots per game. Jonathan Quick has been solid for the Americans with a .931 save percentage and a 1.62 GAA. The former Stanley Cup champion has shined under pressure and instills a ton of confidence in his teammates, whereas Canada has never seen Price play on a major stage.

While the other semifinal will also take place on Friday between Sweden and Finland (6:30 a.m. ET, NBC Sports Network), all eyes will be focused on Team USA versus Team Canada.

It will be interesting to see how these two teams perform under the bright Olympic lights. While it will be tough to top the drama of Thursday's match between the women, this will surely be one to watch.

Updates from Saturday, Feb. 22

According to Matias Strozyk of Elite Prospects, Rask will play in today's bronze medal game against the U.S.:

Original Text

After leading Finland to an upset victory over Russia in the quarterfinals at the 2014 Winter Olympics, goalie Tuukka Rask was expected to be a key figure in the semifinals against Sweden. Unfortunately for the Finns, he is currently under the weather.

According to Michael Farber of SI.com, Rask is reportedly battling the flu, which ultimately prevented him from giving Finland a chance to play for gold in Sochi, Russia:

Rask's surprising omission from the lineup prompted Finland to go with Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen between the pipes and San Jose Sharks backstop Antti Niemi as the backup, per Shawn Roarke of NHL.com:

Rask, who is a key player for the NHL's Boston Bruins, has been brilliant for Finland at the Olympics. He was expected to be a key cog in Finland's attempt to nab a medal, but the illness must be significant if it was enough to keep him off the ice in such a huge game.

Being without Rask is far from an ideal situation; however, Ottawa 67's beat writer Alex Quevillon points out that Finland's goaltending depth helps to ease the sting:

Even so, Rask gave Finland a steadying presence in the crease, and he was arguably the best goalie in the entire Olympic tournament. His Bruins teammate, defenseman Adam McQuaid, viewed Rask as the single biggest factor in Finland's potential run toward the gold medal, according to Brendan C. Hall of ESPNBoston.com.

He's doing the same thing he's doing for us, he's giving them a chance to win every game. In a short tournament like that, and with one game you move on kind of thing, you get a hot goalie, you can do good things. No surprise to see him playing as well as he is. We're all happy for him.

Tough luck forced Rask out of the lineup on Friday, but it remains to be seen how long he'll be laid up. If the Finns lose to Sweden, then Finland will play either the United States or Canada for bronze on Saturday. If Finland wins, though, it won't have to play until Sunday's gold-medal game.

There is no question that Finnish fans are hoping to escape the semis with a win, which would give Rask another day to recover.

Rask is also a key figure for the Bruins moving forward as they look to win another Stanley Cup, but his illness doesn't figure to impact his status with the team much. Perhaps Boston will rest Rask for the first game back against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 26, but there is no reason to believe that this will be a long-term issue.

Rask has likely dreamed about playing in the Olympics for a long time, so it has to be tough for him to sit out in the semifinals, but perhaps this isn't the last that we have heard from him in Sochi.

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The hockey world is abuzz at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi after the incredible gold-medal game on the women’s side between Canada and the United States. 

Now it’s the men’s turn, as the tournament is down to four teams. Canada and the United States will face off in one semifinal, while Sweden and Finland will square off in the other.

Considering the NHL star power that will be on the ice when the Americans and Canadians face off, it is only natural to assume the gold-medal winner will emerge from that game. However, there is plenty of combined talent between Sweden and Finland.

After all, Sweden is the No. 1 seed for a reason.

New Jersey Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti cautions those who are overlooking this game:

Here is a schedule and broadcast information for the semifinal matchup.

2014 Winter Olympics Hockey Semifinal: Sweden vs. Finland

Date: Feb. 21

Time: 7 a.m. ET, 4 p.m. Sochi time and noon GMT

TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Network at 7 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET (rebroadcast), BBC at noon GMT 

Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com

Sweden has to be considered the favorite after an impressive preliminary stage and dominant performance in the quarterfinals.

The Swedes knocked off the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Latvia to the combined tune of 10-5 to finish atop Group C and then destroyed Slovenia 5-0 to reach the semifinals.

Sweden also has demonstrated the best special teams play at the Games by scoring on six of its 17 chances on the power play. If it can take advantage of those opportunities against Finland, it should find a way to reach the gold-medal game.

However, the thing that separates Sweden is its terrific goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

He has dominated in Sochi, stopping 92 of the 97 shots he has faced and leading the way for his squad. There was a bit of a scare in an earlier practice though, as forward Daniel Alfredsson said via USA Today’s Helene St. James:

That's a tough thing because he really wanted to catch Loui [Eriksson] on the breakaway and threw himself down, and Henrik was trying to make the save, and they just pummeled each other. We can laugh at it now because it wasn't too serious, but it gave everybody a big scare.

Lundqvist will have his work cut out for him with the national team from Finland though.

Finland handled Austria 8-4, Norway 6-1 and then lost a heartbreaker to Canada in overtime 2-1 in preliminary play. However, it wasn't until the quarterfinals when Finland made the most noise.

Finland eliminated host country Russia by the score of 3-1, disappointing the home fans and knocking out one of the presumed favorites at the Games in the process. While Russia certainly disappointed at the Sochi Olympics, it had incredible talent, and the win is still a testament to Finland’s ability on the ice.

Finland has seen 12 different players score goals during the tournament and will attack with a balanced offense. 

Looking ahead, the winner of this game will be determined by whether Lundqvist can consistently stop that attack. 

Sweden will likely find the back of the net on a power play at some point, so if Lundqvist can contain Finland, Sweden will be in the gold-medal game.

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As the semifinals in men’s hockey draw near, it is all but impossible to miss the distinct contrast between the offence powering the Canadian and American entries. The United States has 20 goals, good for the tournament lead; Canada meanwhile has just 13, despite the fact that the Canadians have roughly three shots on net for every two the Americans have managed.

Is this simply the case of Team USA having better snipers than the Canadian team? Could it be that the American management group, knowing the hazards inherent in a single-game elimination tournament, opted to stack their roster with elite shooters to a degree that Canada couldn’t match?

The consensus view among the hockey analytics community (laid out nicely at NHLNumbers.com by Eric Tulsky) is that there isn’t much gap in terms of shot quality between NHL teams, but NHL teams aren’t constructed the way Olympic rosters are. That means that what is true at the NHL level isn’t necessarily so in a best-on-best international tournament.

Still, if the U.S. team is stacked with first-shot scorers, that should be evident in the NHL results of the players selected to the team. If the Americans are better off in that regard than the Canadian team, we should expect to see that the players on that team, as a group, have a better shooting-percentage number than their Canadian counterparts.

To test that possibility, we took the shot totals for every individual player on the American and Canadian rosters and multiplied those shot totals by their NHL shooting percentages this season to create a projected goal total. What does the comparison look like?

The American shooters as a group this season had a slightly better average shooting percentage (10.9 percent) than the ones on the Canadian team (10.4 percent), but that wasn’t enough to compensate for Canada’s massive edge in shots. Assuming that Olympic goalies and NHL goalies are the same quality (more on that later), we would expect Canada to have five more goals than they do and the United States to have six fewer.

Shooting percentage, however, fluctuates dramatically from year to year. For example, on the Canadian side, Ryan Getzlaf is shooting at 19.2 percent this season; on his career he’s a significantly lower 12.6 percent.

What happens if we run the test again, this time using career numbers?

The gap gets even wider. The average shooting percentage of Canadian skaters using career numbers is the same as when using data from only this season (10.4 percent in both cases). American shooters have been hot this year, though, firing at a 10.9 percent average clip, when on their careers they have an average shooting rate of 9.3 percent.

Nor is it a case of a superior American strategy creating better scoring chances for its skaters than Canada has managed. Team Canada, by my count, has had 106 shots or missed shots from the scoring chances area to Team USA’s 79, meaning chances and shots have correlated almost exactly.  

Does the explanation lie with the goalies? The following chart shows the starting goaltender in the games played by Canada and the United States:

By eye, the U.S. has faced tougher goalies, with three NHL’ers (skeptics may feel free to add a "barely" in the case of Ondrej Pavelec) in four games. Canada has faced only one NHL starter, and was given the most trouble by Kristers Gudlevskis, a 21-year-old prospect with a middling background.

To recap: Team USA doesn’t have significantly better shooters than team Canada, either this season or using career numbers. It hasn’t created more scoring chances through innovative strategy. It hasn’t faced weaker goalies. How then do we explain the massive gap in goal scoring, given Canada’s shots dominance?

A story involving legendary goalie Patrick Roy offers a possible answer. Roy allowed five goals in one game on the road, and took criticism from the local media after the loss. Vic Ferrari of the blog Irreverent Oiler Fans takes the story from there:

Roy was unflappable though, I heard him on the radio postgame show and he didn't think he'd played a bad game. His explanation for allowing five goals, by my memory; "they made their shots.” If shrugs made a sound, you would have been able to hear it.

Hockey is a game of tiny gaps, a game of bounces, and as such it is a game that variance has a huge impact on over the short term. Over the long haul, pure talent wins out, and things like shooting percentage move toward established averages.

But over four games? Over four games we can see things like two similarly talented groups of shooters posting divergent results. It would likely be a mistake to read anything more into it than that.

Statistics courtesy of IIHF.com, NHL.com and EliteProspects.com.