All-European Final Quartet

Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya became the best of friends during their six seasons as teammates on the Mighty Ducks, so Selanne couldn’t resist the chance to needle his buddy Thursday.

With Selanne leading Finland into tonight’s semifinals in Olympic men’s hockey, has Kariya called to wish him good luck?

“No,” Selanne said. “He knows how expensive overseas calls are.”

Kariya won a gold medal four years ago, as Canada beat the United States in the championship game.

The defending finalists are gone now, after Russia stunned Canada and Finland dismissed the Americans in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. In an all-European semifinal round, Russia plays Finland and Sweden plays the Czech Republic.

“Good thing for European hockey,” Finnish forward Ville Nieminen said.

Not that it’s a bad thing for NHL fans, since the remaining teams consist almost exclusively of NHL players. The Czech roster features six players from the New York Rangers, including Jaromir Jagr, the NHL’s leading scorer. The Swedish roster includes five members of the Detroit Red Wings -- and the Rangers’ goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist.

Jagr laughed off the notion that practicing against Lundqvist in New York would give the goaltender an edge in Turin.

“Hey, I don’t know where I am going to shoot,” Jagr said. “How is he going to know?”

To project a gold medalist appears folly, in a tournament in which the favored Canadians are out and the unheralded Finns are undefeated. But, with dynamic young forward Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals pacing their attack, the Russians have the potential to win with flair.

“I think the Russians have the best team,” Jagr said.

Selanne didn’t quite agree.

“Russia has the best individual players in the tournament, but that doesn’t mean much because it is a team game,” he said.

“We know we can’t get into a scoring race with them, or it will be over early.”

Finland never has won gold. The Czechs won in 1998, the Swedes in 1994 and the Russians in 1992.

“The No. 1 trophy in the world for me is the Stanley Cup,” Swedish forward Daniel Alfredsson said. “It is just so much harder to win. You have a whole season and then four playoff rounds. But that’s not to say the Olympic gold is not big.

“I’m here to win gold.”