WINTER OLYMPICS : These Reds Are Still as Good as Gold : Soviets Rout Sweden, 7-1, to Win Olympic Hockey Again

In the words of that now-famous media critic, Dave Peterson, there are a lot of people out there who don’t know zip about hockey.

For if they did, they would have realized sooner that the Soviet Union hockey team--supposedly on shaky skates--is still the Bolshoi in oversized sweaters and suspenders, able to shinny with a shimmer more dazzling than any other ice show around. Maybe the National Hockey League and a few million dollars--either Canadian or U.S.--will succeed in breaking up the Soviets (now there’s a job for George Steinbrenner), but not just nyet .

By beating Sweden, 7-1, Friday night, the Soviets won their seventh gold medal in the nine Olympics they have crossed sticks with the rest of the world. Defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov scored 26 seconds into the game, and the Soviets blitzed Swedish goalie Peter Lindmark with three goals within 1:41 of the first period, sending Lindmark to an early sauna.

The Swedes have won gold medals in painting (1923), sculpture (1948), and walking (1948 and 1962) but none in ice hockey, and they weren’t about to start now. The Stockholm AC managed just four shots in the second period, three in the third and 13 for the game, which ended with Soviet players shooting their sticks into the stands and Coach Viktor Tikhonov kissing his coaches and high-fiving fans.

“There was a lot of criticism of our national team, and Coach Tikhonov over the lowering of the standards of our game,” Tikhonov said through an interpreter.

“Everything was measured by first place. Second place is considered a failure. For any team and any coach, that’s an incredible burden.”

Until Peterson planted himself mouth-first in the hot seat here with his defenseless tactics and offensive remarks, Tikhonov--who is the same age (57) as the Team USA coach--was under the most fire.

The Soviets didn’t exactly arrive here on a roll--they had lost the world championship last spring in Vienna, the Canada Cup last fall and their own Izvestia Cup in December. Tikhonov, who made his Olympic debut in the 1980 “Debacle at Lake Placid” (as it’s called in Soviet history books), was said to have outlasted his usefulness with a team that was becoming boring with age.

Try telling that to the seven sisters who were steamrollered by Team CCCP here in the last two weeks. The Soviets outscored the opposition, 44-11. Fetisov, the brilliant defenseman who supposedly was squabbling with Tikhonov and had his mind set on going to New Jersey in the NHL, has a tournament best plus-minus of 18, meaning he was on the ice for 18 more goals scored by his team than by the opposition.

Fetisov also has 13 points on 4 goals and 9 assists--he had a goal and two assists against the Swedes--second in the tournament to teammate Vladimir Krutov, winger on the Million Ruble Line. Igor Larionov, who centers Krutov and Sergei Makarov, also has 13 points, with Makarov having 11.

And while there supposedly wasn’t anyone from Moscow to Vladivostok capable of carrying legend Vladislav Tretiak’s goalie stick, Sergei Mylnikov--who arrived here as the team’s No. 2 man in nets--played all seven games and recorded two shutouts.

“Some of our lack of success led many into making an error on the strength of our national team,” Tikhonov said. “I think the Olympic games will change opinions over the strength of our team.”

And it may also silence the speculation over the future of Tikhonov, who reportedly was in line to be replaced as national coach. That could still happen, but he doesn’t expect it. What are his plans?

“Work,” said Tikhonov, whose first job was as a mechanic in a bus depot during World War II. He was 10 at the time.

He said he expects to be coaching at next year’s world championships and would like to be back for the 1992 Olympics in France.

Curt Lindstrom, Sweden’s assistant coach, said he hadn’t seen the Soviets play with such enthusiasm in the last two or three years.

“Today we met a fantastic hockey team,” Lindstrom said. “The whole defensive play of the Russian team was perfect. No team, except the U.S. team, could come close to the net.”

That added spirit, some suggested, was the result of some old-fashioned capitalistic incentive. Reportedly, a gold medal was worth the equivalent of $25,000 a man to the Soviets, and a gold medal was supposedly a ticket to the NHL for some of the team’s star players, such as Fetisov and his defensive partner, Alexei Kasatonov, who missed Friday’s game with an ankle injury.

Tikhonov, asked how much his players received for winning, replied in predictable fashion.

“If I get nothing at all,” he said, “the gold medal will be enough.”

He also said it wasn’t his decision to make whether any of his players wind up in the NHL. If it were his decision?

“You put me in a very difficult position,” he said. “For Kasatonov and Fetisov to play would require their own personal approval, it would require the approval of the clubs for which they play, and a decision by the (national) federation.

“It’s not fair to ask me whether I’m for or against when the decision has to be made elsewhere.”

Igor Dmitriev, the team’s assistant coach and the No. 1 candidate to eventually succeed Tikhonov, was asked which opponent gave the Soviets the most trouble here. The United States came closest, losing, 7-5, after rallying to within a goal from a 6-2 deficit, but Team Peterson didn’t even draw a mention from Dmitriev.

“For each team, we had a tremendous amount of preparation,” said Dmitriev, “especially the Czechs, because we had been burnt by them a couple of times.

“From the players’ point of view, it may have been the match with Canada, because they had gotten the best of us (at Izvestia Cup). It was a question of self-pride for the players.”

The Soviets still have a game to play--Sunday against Finland, which lost an outside shot at the gold by giving up four power-play goals to the Czechs in a 5-2 loss Friday. Canada, an 8-1 winner over West Germany, plays the Czechs today and Sweden meets West Germany Sunday in games that will help determine the other medal winners.