Ambitious backstop

Sixteen-year-old Swede Martin wants to play in Elite League

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Now that Kim Martin has fulfilled one of her dreams -- playing in the Olympics -- the 16-year-old Swedish goalie wants to move on.

"I'm going to be the first girl in the Swedish Elite League," Martin says, referring to Europe's premier men's hockey league.

Martin, who has been the starting goalie in the majority of Sweden's games this season, made her club debut for the Swedish women's team of AIK at age 13.

After three years, the women's league started to get too tight for Martin. She has only played three games for AIK this winter, spending most of the season with Hammarby boys' team.

"It's fun to play with the boys. They shoot so much harder," says Martin, whose father Fleming coaches Hammarby's goalies.

In 1992, Canadian Manon Rheaume became the first female goalie on an NHL team when she played a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Lightning. She spent the rest of her hockey career in the minors.

The youngest player on the Swedish national team, Martin could be the starting goalie in Tuesday's semifinals against defending champion United States at the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo.

Despite her young age, Martin has already played 40 games for Sweden. She says she has already reached every goal she's set for herself.

"Playing in the Olympics was one of them," she says. "To play in the Swedish league with the best guys would really be cool."

Martin had a shutout in her Olympic debut last Wednesday when Sweden blanked Kazakstan 7-0 in the preliminary round to secure a semifinal berth.

Lars Karlsson, the team's general manager, said the last workout before the game probably would decide if Martin will get another chance or if Annica Ahlen will play again.

"We'll pick the player who looks sharpest in training," said Karlsson before Monday's last practice session.

Sweden reached the semifinals with a 2-1 record in round-robin play. The only loss came against Canada (11-0). That loss was expected as Canada and the United States dominate the women's game. Canada has won all seven world championships played so far, with the United States finishing second seven times.

The United States has never lost to Sweden, compiling a 17-0 record and outscoring the Swedes 126-13.

A Swedish win Tuesday would be a bigger upset than the "Miracle on Ice" in the 1980 Lake Placid Games, when a U.S. team of college kids upset the powerful Soviet Union en route to the gold.

Still, reaching the semifinals and probably ending up playing Finland in the bronze-medal game was a big accomplishment for Sweden.

Three months ago, the Swedish Olympic Committee hinted it would not send a women's team to the Olympics because of a winless streak dating to last spring.

Then, the Swedes were winless in 14 games since the 2001 world championships in the United States. They slumped to seventh in that tournament after a fifth in the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

"A medal is definitely our goal here," says Martin, who made her national team debut in Salt Lake City two years ago. "And I think we have good chance to make it."

 

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