Sweden vs Finland will be the lower profile semi-final game in the Men’s Hockey tournament, but it is still a huge rivalry with some very competent teams. Sweden is the only team who has won every game so far in these Olympics without needing any extra time, while Finland is coming off a big upset victory over Russia in the semi-finals. These two nations don’t particularly like each which comes with the close proximity and you can be sure this will be a battle right to the end.
Sweden vs Finland Olympics Odds
Here are the odds from one of our top rated bookies for the Olympics.
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Sweden 1.62
Finland 2.35
Sweden is a decent favourite in this game and rightfully so. On paper their roster is quite a bit better than the Finns, but Finland has played hard at these Olympics and shown they can compete with anyone in the tournament.
Free Pick
Looking at the tournament to this point Sweden has done fairly well. They hadn’t really dominated a team on the scoreboard until they beat Slovenia 5-0 in the quarterfinal game. That said, their group was quite challenging. The Czech Republic and Latvia both made the quarterfinals after finishing 3rd and 4th in the group, while the Swiss only gave up 1 goal in the round robin stages and it was to the Swedes. Losing Zetterberg does not help Swedens chances, but they still have a much better roster on paper than the Finns.
Finland though is a very smart team that can frustrate opponents into making mistakes. They play a similar style to the lesser teams in these games such as Latvia, Norway and Switzerland in that they use speed and play a very defensive game in their own zone. The difference is that Finland has strong enough players to finish when they get the chance, which is how they have done so well thus far. Finland took Canada to overtime and beat Russia 3-1 in the quarterfinals. The Russian team was not very good throughout the tournament though so I don’t want to read into that win too much.
The difference between Sweden and Russia against the Finns is that that Swedish attack can come from anywhere. Not only do they have strong forwards like Russia, but they also have offensive minded defensemen like Karlsson and Ekman-Larsson who can skate and move the puck. I think this method of attack will enable to Swedes to score where the Russians could not.
I like the Swedes to win this game, but I expect Finland to keep it a tight battle for much of the game.
Play: Sweden 1.62
Tagged With : Olympics Semi-Finals • Team Finland • Team Sweden