LILLEHAMMER. Norway. Mar 2: The future of Olympic hockey is tough to predict. About as tough as figuring out what happened in the tournament Sweden just won. reports AP.

Will there be “Dream Teams." in Nagano in 1998 — Eric Lindros playing for Canada. Jeremy Roenick for the United States. Sergei Fedorov for Russia? That's being discussed.

Will shootouts still decide medal-round games, even when the gold medal is at stake? Maybe that Issue should be brought up.

Sweden used that device adopted in 1988. to win their first Olympic hockey gold medal with a 3-2 victory Sunday and destroy Canada's hopes for their first gold in 42 years.

It was a stunning conclusion to a tournament full of sur prises.

The loss of talent to the

National Hockey League finally caught up with Russia. Their 4-4 record was worse than any of their predecessors from the Soviet Union and Unified Team that won eight of the previous 10 gold medals, losing Just six games along the way. The Russians lost the third-place game to Finland and left without a medal, something that never happened to the Soviets and Unifieds.

The Americans who won the other two golds, also hit a new low with an eighth-place finish. They won Just one of eight games, their fewest ever.

Finland's 6-0 start was another shock. So was a 19-mlnute nightmare against Canada in which it gave up five goals, as many as It allowed in Its other 461 minutes. That burst gave Canada, another medal longshot, a 5-3 semifinal win

Certainly, few could imagine the gold-medal game that

wouldn't end.

Sixty minutes of regulation play. Ten minutes of overtime. A five-ipund shootout In which each team scored twice. Still no winner. Time for sudden death.

Both teams missed on their first shots. The next round showcased two youngsters tabbed for NHL greatness — 20 year-old Peter Forsberg, who Wayne Gretzky called the world's best young player, and 19-year-old Paul Kariya, whose style has been compared to Gretzky’s

Forsberg scored. Kariya didn't. Sweden won. Canada got its second straight silver.

Even Swedish hero Tommy Salo, the goalie who made the final save, doesn't like IL

"It’s too big a tournament." he said. "It takes too much luck."

The tournament could the even bigger four years from now.