Ice hockey-Sweden survives Latvia fightback to secure a win
BEIJING, February 10 (Reuters) – Sweden survived a tough battle against Latvia and held on to a 3-2 victory in their start of men’s ice hockey at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday that made both teams go away and believe the same thing – the gold medal is up for grabs.
When the National Hockey League withdraws from the Beijing Games due to an increase in covid-19 that created chaos in its schedule, the Olympic tournament has no clear favorite and the early game at the National Indoor Stadium has underlined how wide the medal hunt is going to be .
The first three matches have all been decided with a single goal, including a great outrage that caused Olympic debutant Denmark to shock the Czech Republic with 2-1.
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“Watching the matches yesterday, anything can happen,” Sweden forward Fredrik Olofsson told Reuters. “You can not take anything for granted, everyone has a chance at it (a gold medal) it’s just to make sure you get called in every match because there are not that many, you have to make them count.”
Sweden, who won gold medals at the Olympics in Lillehammer 1994 and 2006 in Turin, looked ready for a straight decision against Latvia and took a 3-0 lead halfway through the second after two goals from Lucas Wallmark and others from Anton Lander.
But Latvia would strike back with powerplay talies from Renars Krastenbergs and Nikolajs Jelisejevs to send the match to a nervous end.
“The big challenge for the medal starts today but this was only the first battle. We could not win a medal and we could not lose medals today so we are in it like any other team,” said Latvian captain Lauris Darzins .
“We will be positive. It is a 10-day tournament so we are in it, we will not just cry on the bench.
“A lot can happen in a match.”
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Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing Muralikumar Anantharaman
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