Sports digest: Sweden misses out on hockey bronze

Sport's Digest is The Local's look at the week that was in Swedish sport

• Swedes sweep top French football awards (20 May 13)
• Sweden win ice hockey world champs at home (20 May 13)
• Sweden beat Finland in hunt for hockey gold (18 May 13)

Ice Hockey

A hectic week at the world ice hockey championship in Moscow ended in a fourth place finish for reigning champions Sweden.

Russia claimed the bronze medal with a 3-1 win over Sweden on Sunday.

"We made several mistakes in the first period. And after being 2-0 down it was difficult to make things go our way," Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said.

"We worked hard, played with a good discipline and goaltending but failed to save the day."

"Now the season is over and I hope we will have more wins next season."

Canada dashed Sweden's hopes of defending their title with a 4-1 semi-final win on Saturday.

Los Angeles Kings forward Mike Camalleri collected a goal and an assist, while netminder Cam Ward made 29 saves as Canada defeated the reigning champions.

The action was fast and furious from the opening face-off but it took until 11:05 into the first period before Canada found the net, Camallieri wristing the puck home from the right face-off circle on a powerplay.

Jonathan Toews and Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes added their goals later in the period to give Canada a commanding 3-0 lead before the first intermission.

Johan Davidsson reduced the arrears 6:13 into the second period, also clinching the lead in the top scorers contest with 14 points (7 goals + 7 assists) but the Swedes never came any closer than that.

Columbus Blue Jackets striker Rick Nash restored Canada's three-goal lead with 4:43 remaining before the second break, beating Sweden goalie Johan Backlund with an unopposed close-range shot.

Sweden secured a berth in the last four on Wednesday with a 7-4 win over Slovakia.

Football

Stockholm club Hammarby top Allsvenskan after a last gasp winner against Örebro secured all three points in what by all accounts was a dreadful game of football.

New signing Heidar Geir Juliusson from Iceland had only been on the pitch twelve minutes when he chipped stand-in keeper Richard Richardsson.

Örebro's first-choice goalkeeper had previously been forced to leave the field after being knocked unconscious in a collision with Hammarby's Emil Johansson.

Earlier in the week Hammarby came away from Malmö with a hard-earned point.

In Sunday's other game an impressive Kalmar jumped from sixth to second with a 2-1 win over last season's champions Elfsborg.

Not for the first time this season, Kalmar's Brazilian signing César Sántin dominated proceedings, though he failed to get on the scoreboard on this occasion.

AIK are third in the table following a solid 2-0 victory away to newcomers Brommapojkarna.

Gothenburg and Gefle both have the opportunity of joining Hammarby on eleven points when they meet in the western city on Monday evening.

Malmö too can climb to the top if they manage to take three points from Tuesday's southern derby at Helsingborg.

Golf

Sweden's Fredrik Andersson finished in joint second place behind England's Lee Westwood at the Valle Romano Open de Andalucia in Marbella on Sunday.

Westwood finished two shots ahead of Andersson and fellow Englishman Phillip Archer
Andersson to walk away with the winner's cheque of 166,660 euros.

The world number 63 looked set for an easy stroll to his 17th tour victory after racing to the turn in 31 and leading by five with just eight holes to play.

But the 34-year-old dropped three shots over the next five holes. Archer and Andersson both hit eagles on the 16th hole that saw the Ryder Cup star's lead cut to just one shot.

Westwood hit back with a birdie on the 16th to edge two clear and eventually holed from 40ft for par on the 18th and a victory that should lift the former European number one back into the world's top 50 on Monday.

The Local/AFP