ICE HOCKEY (7)

Sweden won the world ice hockey championship last night in Stockholm, beating Switzerland 5-1 in the final. In doing so, they broke the "host curse"; no nation has won the world championship on home ice since Russia did it in Moscow in 1986.

Under pressure after losing the final to arch-rivals Finland in 2011 and going out in the quarter finals last year, the Swedes started the tournament poorly, losing two of their seven pool matches. However, the late arrival of the Sedin twins and Loui Eriksson after their NHL teams were knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs gave them a classy top line, who could provide much needed offensive power. They helped to turn round a 2-0 deficit against Canada in the quarter final, Sweden eventually going through after a penalty shoot-out. And they were impressive in a 3-0 defeat of Finland in the semi-final. In the final itself, Switzerland came out blazing and deservedly scored first. But then the Swedes gradually applied a python-like squeeze on their opponents, and were clearly on top by the end. I watched the game with my son, who was rooting for Switzerland after living in Zürich and Basel for two years. Even he admitted that the Swedes were the better team.

For the Swiss, bitter disappointment, but they had a fantastic tournament. There are basically seven class teams in international ice hockey - Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - and you have to go all the way back to 1953, when Germany won silver and Switzerland bronze, to find a team outside the top seven winning a medal, let alone the whole thing. Because quarter final knockout stages require an eighth team, the next tier generally have to fight over that. Denmark got it a couple of years ago, Germany and Switzerland sometimes get it as well. But they rarely get any further.

This year the Swiss tore up the traditional script. They won all seven of their pool games, beating Canada, Sweden and the Czech Republic along the way. In the quarter finals they beat the Czechs again, and in the semi-finals scored a deserved 3-0 win against a U.S. team that had knocked out defending champions Russia 8-3 (there are not many teams that have ever put eight goals past the Russians). In the final, they started in the same vein; but it is difficult to play ice hockey at 100mph for sixty minutes, and they eventually ran out of puff.

All eyes now focus on the Winter Olympics in Russia next year. Will the Swedes and Swiss be there again? I doubt it. The NHL doesn't stop for the world championships, but it does generally take a month-long break for the Olympics, so all of the top NHL players will be available in Sochi (which, as Sweden demonstrated, matters). The other teams will get their NHL stars; but since so many of the top NHL players are Canadian or Russian, they will benefit most. Unless there is a quirk of the draw, I predict a Russia-Canada final. I am already looking forward to it.

Walter Blotscher