Monday, April 25, 2005

Many of the top Swedes have opted out of this year's World Championship in Austria

RIGA, Latvia (CP) -- The Czech Republic and Sweden announced their squads for the IIHF world championship Monday, with Jaromir Jagr heading a powerful Czech squad and Daniel Alfredsson leading a Swedish team missing star players like Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg.

The Swedes, who lost the championship game to Canada in both 2003 and 2004, will be hard-pressed to get back to the final of the 12-team event that starts Saturday in Austria.

Missing from the 25-man list are top players like Forsberg, Sundin, Niklas Lidstrom, Markus Naslund and Tomas Holmstrom. Some are injured, others chose not to play.

Teams must pare rosters to 23 players before the tournament begins.  Leading Sweden is Ottawa Senators skipper Alfredsson, Detroit Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg and twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks. 
 
There are 10 players from last year's silver medallists and eight, including Alfredsson, from Swedish league champion Frolunda.  The top goaltender is Frolunda's Henrik Lundqvist, backed by Stefen Liv of HV71 and Johan Holmqvist of Brynas.  The defence is led by NHL veterans Mattias Norstrom of the Los Angeles Kings and Kenny Jonsson of the New York Islanders. Jonsson won Olympic gold for Sweden in 1994.  Other blueliners are Sanny Lindstrom of Timra, Magnus Johansson of Linkoping, Niklas Kronwall of Djurgardens, Christian Backman and Ronnie Sundin of Frolunda and Thomas Rhodin of Farjestads.

Forwards of note are P.J. Axelsson of the Boston Bruins, Jonas Hoglund of Farjestads and Samuel Pahlsson of Frolunda. Also up front are Magnus Kahnberg of Frolunda, Mattias Weinhandl of MODO, Johan Frantzen of Linkoping, Jonathan Hedstrom of Timra, Peter Nordstrom and Jorgen Jonsson of Farjestads, Mikael Samuelsson of Sodetaljie.
 
-Referenced from www.sportsnet.ca

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