IIHF – Sweden’s Halifax Curse
Swedes and Canadians get along well. Similar climate, similar personalities, same love for hockey. Börje Salming, Mats Sundin. Say nothing more. So what about Halifax then, because Sweden has a decidedly bad relationship with Canada’s lovely east coast city.
It all started almost 40 years ago during the 1984 Canada Cup. Matches were played across the country for that iteration, and on the first day of the tournament, on September 1, the Metro Center hosted a match between the USA and Sweden to kick things off. It was a game made famous by Bryan Trottier’s first appearance for the United States instead of his native Canada, but he scored twice in a convincing 7-1 win over Tre Kronor. Peter Sundström got the lone goal for the Swedes, who played better and better as they moved west and eventually made it to the finals in Calgary and Edmonton.
In 1987, the Canada Cup returned to Halifax for another match, but Sweden did not play. They did play in Sydney though and beat Finland 3-1, so there’s that. The next time an international event came to Halifax was 20 years ago, the 2003 edition of the World Juniors. And it was one that everyone in Sweden would like to forget. In a nation rich in success, the Swedes were a deep disappointment that year, winning just one of four games in the round robin and having to play in the relegation round. They won just one of two games in that series and it was only a 7-2 victory over Germany that prevented the indignity of having to play in Division I.
To be fair, there were no memorable days for the Swedish junior program all around. They had to play relegation again in 2004, although they won all three games that time, and they also finished 9th at the 2002 U18 World Cup. Several players were in both junior teams, especially Tobias Enström, Alexander Steen, Robert Nilsson and Andreas Valdix.
These results were also reflected in the NHL draft. In 2003, only Nilsson was drafted in the first round, and the year before, Steen was the highest Swedish selection at 24th overall (by Toronto). The 2003 World Juniors was a huge success at the box office, attracting a record 242,173 fans. As a result, the IIHF awarded the 2004 Women’s World Championship to Halifax and Dartmouth, but that only created more disappointment for Sweden.
In the second round of round-robin play, they faced Canada and the United States, again at the Metro Center, and you can imagine how it went against the North American powerhouses – losses of 7-1 and 9-2. They then lost the bronze medal game to Finland and left WW 2004 with a 0-3 record in Halifax.
Halifax was front and center again in 2008 for the IIHF’s centennial celebration, hosting the World Championship with Quebec City. Thankfully for Tre Kronor, they played all their matches in Quebec, although Finland beat them, 4-0, to take the bronze at Le Colisee.
Overall, though, Swedish teams had a dismal 2-9 record in Halifax (or, 3-10 in Nova Scotia) before beating Austria last night in convincing fashion to open the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. Across Canada, Sweden’s success at U20 has been better, but not sensational. They have only won two U20 Games golds all-time, but one came in Edmonton in 2012, ending a 31-year drought. Canada has hosted the World Juniors 15 times, and Sweden has also won two silver medals (1978 Montreal, 2009 Ottawa) and three bronze (1995 Red Deer, 2010 Saskatoon, 2022 Edmonton).
However, the results speak loud and clear. For Sweden is to play in Canada, the West is the best and the East is the least!