Russia (bbabo.net), - The tournament paths of the Russian and Swedish ice hockey teams at the Olympics crossed twice. And in both cases, the winners of these matches eventually won gold.

The first meeting took place in 1994 at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway. At the semi-final stage, the Swedish team was opposed by the Russian team led by the legendary Viktor Tikhonov, who was assisted by Igor Dmitriev at that tournament.

Few people remember, but then the leadership of the FHR decided to create two teams - the national team, headed by Boris Mikhailov, and the Olympic team. After winning the 1992 Games, a large group of leaders from that team went overseas. Vyacheslav Bykov and Andrei Khomutov, who spoke in Switzerland, could not help. As a result, in Group A, the Russians took fourth place and knocked out Slovakia in overtime in the quarter-finals, which became the first in Group B.

And in the semi-finals, the Russian players were opposed by Sweden. Already in the debut, Tikhonov's team conceded two goals, by the 45th minute the score was 1:4. At the very end of the meeting, the Russian team managed to win back two goals within 10 seconds, but the match could not be saved for the remaining 62 seconds. From that composition, the current coaching staff of the Russian team includes Alexei Kudashov.

The Swedes defeated Canada in the final and won the gold of the Games.

The second meeting of these teams was already in Turin, where hockey players from the NHL played in the compositions of both teams. Then the team, led by Vladimir Krikunov, scored five unanswered goals at the Tre Krunur gate in the group stage. In that match, goalkeeper Evgeny Nabokov made his debut for the Russian national team, and Alexei Kovalev, Alexander Ovechkin, Maxim Sushinsky, Viktor Kozlov and Maxim Afinogenov became the authors of the goals.

From that line-up, coach Sergei Gonchar and general manager Ilya Kovalchuk work in the current team.

The Russian team at the 2006 Games stumbled in the semi-finals, and then lost in the bronze match. And the Swedes again became Olympic champions.

In Beijing 2022, the Russian team will try to defeat the Swedes, so that, according to tradition, they will take the gold of the Olympics.

bbabo.Net