Five match-ups to look for in gold medal ice hockey match

Henrik Lundqvist vs Carey Price - For Sweden, no match-up matters more than that of the goalies. Lundqvist was the key to Sweden's success at the 2006 Torino Games and not much has changed eight years later. He's played every minute of every game for Sweden and has allowed six goals in five games. His style makes him hard to predict, even for Rick Nash, who is Lundqvist's teammate on the New York Rangers of the NHL.

"He's a guy that plays kind of a different style, deep in his net," said Nash. "He's a tough guy to figure out, even when you shoot on him every day. He doesn't play like other goalies."

While Lundqvist has long been Sweden's clear number one goalkeeper, questions remained about Price's standing on the team as recently as the quarterfinals. That all ended after his 31-save shutout in Canada's 1-0 semifinal win over the USA. Price looked solid in goal, doing a good job and staying square with the puck, and was helped by a Canadian team that is fiercely committed to forechecking and team defence.

Erik Karlsson v Drew Dougthy - Both teams in the gold medal game can make claims to having the best defenceman in the men's ice hockey tournament. Karlsson has cemented his reputation as one of the game's best puck-moving defenceman and has shown a knack for timely goals, having scored the game-winner in the semifinal. Dougthy has demonstrated much of the offensive flair he first displayed at the Vancouver 2010 Games, not being afraid to pinch in the offensive end and put shots on net. He's been rewarded with four goals and two assists.

"Doughts did the same four years ago," said Canada head coach Mike Babcock after Dougthy scored both of Canada's goals in a 2-1 preliminary round win over Finland. "He's just a really good player, makes good decisions. He's got a heavy body so he can really play without the puck but is really dynamic with it as well. He sees it, gets it, what's going on, doesn't seem to force things to generate offence, just plays the game."

Mike Babcock vs five Detroit Red Wings

Canada head coach Babcock will have a great sense of familiarity with the five Swedish players who play their NHL hockey with the team he coaches, the Detroit Red Wings. The five are Daniel Alfredsson, Jonathan Ericsson, Niklas Kronwall, Gustav Nyquist and back-up goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.

It will be interesting to see whether Babcock's familiarity with the Swedish players is any kind of advantage. Babcock, for one, is not giving any hints.

"I am real proud of those guys," said Babcock of his Swedish Red Wings' players. "They are good men and good players and they have had a lot of winning in their careers and it should be a lot of fun. This is what it is all about. You come here to compete and we will compete as hard as we can."

Sweden's powerplay vs Canada's penalty kill

Three of Sweden's five game-winning goals have come with the man-advantage, most recently with Karlsson scoring a man-up in the semifinal win over Finland. Canada has been the stingiest penalty kill in the tournament, allowing just one goal in 14 chances. Ryan Getzlaf is one of only two players in the tournament to have scored a short-handed goal.

Jonathan Toews vs Nicklas Backstrom

If the gold medal game ends in a shootout, one player could end up being the next T.J. Oshie, the forward who became a national hero after scoring four shootout goals in USA's shootout win over Russia. It's impossible to predict who might be a shootout hero, but Toews will likely be the go-to skater in the shootout. He has seven shootout goals in the NHL season and famously went 3-for-3 in Canada's semifinal shootout win over the USA at the 2007 world junior championship. Sweden's Backstrom has six shootout goals on 13 attempts in the NHL this season, tops among Swedish players.

 

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